Sussex vs Northamptonshire Match Drawn Due to Bad Light : Robinson Completes 400 FC Wickets

On an exciting final day at Hove, bad light and persistent opposition from Lewis McManus prevented Sussex from pulling off an improbable victory over Northamptonshire.

Before the umpires, McManus batted for an hour while his four partners came and went, and the Northants stumbled to 170 for 9. With Northants leading by sixty-three, Paul Baldwin and Surendiran Shanmugam concluded it was too dismal even for spinning.

Even though Sussex ultimately lost by more than 100 overs, they should be encouraged because they made most of the runs, particularly over the last two days. Their total was 15, whereas Northants’ was 13.

They took a 107-run advantage in the first inning and held Northants to 57 for 4. Before left-arm spinner James Coles restored Sussex’s hopes with three of the four wickets that fell in 7.1 overs after tea, leaving them 152 for 8, captain Luke Procter (41) calmed the nerves.

After eight overs of resistance from McManus and Ben Sanderson, Sussex captain John Simpson was able to bring back his quicks, Jayden Seales and Ollie Robinson, for two overs apiece, as the light improved enough.

To commemorate taking off Sanderson’s middle stump with an unplayable yorker, Robinson duly celebrated his 400th first-class wicket. The players shook hands just after 6 o’clock in the evening, but the light didn’t get better when spinners Coles and Jack Carson came back.

In order to get the most batting points possible, Sussex had added 127 in 20 overs before declaring their first innings at 478 for 9. Danny Lamb scored 41 runs in just 14.1 overs to take Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Danny Lamb’s seventh wicket stand to 99. Chris Tremain then held an outstanding low catch at midwicket from Sanderson.

After making nine Championship fifties the previous season, Hudson-Prentice proved his worth once more with 73 from 60 balls. Tremain had to use some ingenuity in his bowling to remove him when he held one back and Hudson-Prentice drove to long-on.

In a brisk 61 from 53 balls, Carson blasted Sanderson for three sixes, hurting even the generally thrifty batsman. He was bowled to give left-arm spinner Zaib his fourth wicket as he attempted to clear midwicket once more.

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Before the declaration, Robinson and Seales amassed 30 runs off of ten balls. Northants had four overs remaining before lunch, but they were unable to negotiate them unscathed as Seales hit a beautiful away-swinger that Justin Broad edged to third slip.

After lunch, Sussex got even more motivation as they claimed three wickets in ten overs. Seales took his sixth wicket of the game when Emilio Gay (20) lost his off stump. Karun Nair then edged Robinson to third slip after Coles made an incredible catch low to his left.

After driving offspinner Carson onto the South Stand roof, George Bartlett died two balls later, but Procter and Rob Keogh’s stand of 73 helped steer Northants into, at least, more placid waters.

After tea, Coles took three more wickets to add to his three from the first innings. Michael Finan was caught at second slip during the drive, Keogh was leg before wicket due to a quicker ball, and Zaib was superbly caught at slip while attempting to direct the ball to third man. Carson’s action, going around the wicket to have Procter leg before he could aim through midwicket, set off the collapse.

Bowling at a good speed all through, Robinson concluded with 2 for 19 from ten overs in three periods. It was only his second first-class encounter since July 2023, so he will have been happy to finish the match after 32 overs.