Rothesay County Championship, Division One, County Floor, Hove (day 4)
Sussex 393 & 167-3 dec: Haines 63
Surrey 321: Lomror 58; Hunt 3-65
Sussex (14 pts) drew with Surrey (13 pts)
Sussex skipper Tom Haines made his fifth half-century of the season as their sport with Surrey fizzled out right into a draw at Hove.
Frustratingly for Haines, he has didn’t convert any of these fifties into 100 and can really feel he missed out once more. Having acquired to 63 with few alarms he pulled an extended hop from Rahul Chahar to mid-wicket.
Sussex reached 167-3 of their second innings – a lead of 240 – when the groups shook palms at 16:20 BST after Ollie Pope had bowled solely his second over in first-class cricket.
Within the last evaluation, the lack of the primary day’s play to rain proved essential.
For there to have been a optimistic end result right now Surrey wanted to get past Sussex’s first innings complete of 393 and take early wickets to place them beneath strain. Ultimately, on a gradual, true pitch, neither occurred.
Surrey nonetheless want a couple of factors to verify they don’t get dragged right into a relegation battle however they’ve put distance between themselves and second-bottom Leicestershire, who additionally face a potential factors deduction for getting ready a substandard pitch towards Glamorgan final month.
Sussex keep fourth and though they’re in contact with the three title chasers a extra practical ambition is to emulate final season’s fourth-place end which might be a substantial achievement contemplating the 12-point penalty for monetary irregularities they began the season with.
And they’ll have a say within the vacation spot of the title with Nottinghamshire at Hove subsequent week within the penultimate spherical of fixtures.
When Sussex batted once more with a lead of 73 they quickly misplaced George Thomas who was pinned in entrance by Matt Fisher, however by the 14th over leg-spinner Chahar and fellow Indian Mahipal Lomror had been stepping into their work they usually ended up sending down 42 overs between them.
Nevertheless, with just some gradual activate supply, it took them 21 overs to make a breakthrough by which period Haines and Charlie Tear added 90 for the second wicket earlier than Tear was lbw to a full-length ball from Lomror the batsman was entitled to assume may need been drifting down the leg aspect.
Haines, who’s averaging a modest 28.87 this season, seemed unperturbed towards the dual spin assault and was mortified when Chahar’s full toss ended up being safely pouched by Rory Burns diving to his left as an alternative of being pummelled over the boundary.
Oli Carter and James Coles placed on 36 for the fourth wicket earlier than the sport was mercifully put to mattress.
Earlier, Surrey’s final three wickets added 27 runs earlier than they had been bowled out for 321, a deficit of 73.
Adam Thomas and Fisher prolonged their eighth-wicket stand to 47 when Thomas drove left-arm spinner Coles’ fifth ball low to further cowl.
Ari Karvelas had Chahan caught low down by wicketkeeper John Simpson for a duck and Fisher picked out mid-on when he tried to hit Jaydev Unadkat excessive.
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