Pujara falls before close to give Durham hope, but hosts in control needing 59 to win
Alan Gardner08-Apr-2023Sussex’s youthful promise has been damned by the cricket gods on more than one occasion in recent years, and their supporters will sleep uneasily on a requirement of 59 with five wickets still standing. They seemed to have a precious victory all but secure at 166 for 3 with six overs left in the day, only for Durham to pluck out two set batters – including the totemic figure of Cheteshwar Pujara – as the shadows lengthened in Hove.Pujara had averred on the second evening, after his 115 had kept Sussex within touching distance on first innings, that his side were confident of chasing down “anywhere close to 350”. As it was, Durham’s tumble through the trapdoor marked Tricky Third Innings saw the visiting side dismissed for 189 inside two sessions, allowing Sussex to work their way steadily towards a target of 230 as the seagulls swooped and contrails criss-crossed a milky blue sky.It would have been too cute for them to gallivant to victory inside three days, having spent much of the first half of the match under the cosh, but Tom Haines provided the platform with 64 from 69 balls at the top of the order and Pujara seemed once again to be batting with the certainty of a tractor beam. But after Matthew Kuhnemann trapped Tom Clark lbw playing across the line to end a half-century stand, Pujara’s miscued pull picked out Michael Jones at short midwicket to spark jubilation among the men from Durham. Pujara looked so disappointed with himself that he might well have cursed.Haines and Ali Orr had begun the chase in confident fashion, Matt Potts taken for three fours in his second over as the openers chalked 30 off the requirement. Orr then swiped the first ball delivered by Brydon Carse straight to fine leg, before Haines and Alsop settled the innings with a partnership of 77. Alsop was dismissed attempting to reverse-sweep Kuhnemann – Potts doing well to hold a sprawling catch as he dived behind the wicketkeeper – and the persevering Carse then bounced out Haines to increase the Sussex jitters.Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, had spoken at the start of the season about the importance of breaking games down “session-by-session, hour-by-hour”, as a means of teaching an inexperienced side how to win four-day contests. Their greater resilience was evidenced by the way Sussex twice fought back into this match – bowling Durham out for 376 after they had been 213 for 1 (from 41 overs), and then making sure they posted 300 themselves from a position of 91 for 4.Although Durham took a 41-run lead on first innings, they appeared uncertain whether to stick or twist. Gone was the front-foot commitment of the side that blazed out of the traps on the first afternoon and they were quickly in trouble, losing five wickets before the lunch break as Henry Crocombe’s burst helped Sussex to retake the initiative.Had Durham’s top order fallen to a series of attacking shots then at least they would have been sticking to the blueprint. But by and large their dismissals were of the tentative variety, and it was only a measured first half-century since moving north for Ollie Robinson and some long-levered biffing from Carse that gave them something to bowl at.Sussex added just three runs to their overnight total but lingering cloud cover gave the bowlers some encouragement and they applied themselves much better than on day one. Jones was the first to depart, feathering an edge on the angle from left-armer Sean Hunt. Crocombe then struck with his third and seventh balls: Lees, driving away from his body, nicked behind before Ben McKinney’s tame prod resulted in a third catch at the wicket for Oli Carter.Durham were 42 for 3, but the position only got worse. Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who only came into the game on the third morning as a concussion substitute for George Garton, found a lovely curving line from the Cromwell Road End to induce a thick outside-edge as David Bedingham threw his hands, and Crocombe snaffled a third in the following over, Graham Clark fiddling through to Carter to make the score 63 for 5.Underpinning the bowling effort was Australian allrounder Nathan McAndrew, whose five-for in the first innings prevented Durham from taking too many liberties. Sussex’s attack in recent years has looked greener than the MP for Brighton Pavilion and here they fielded two 21-year-olds, in Hunt and Crocombe, alongside 22-year-old spinner Jack Carson. The introduction of Hudson-Prentice (27) for Garton (25) only pushed the average age up by a few months.But it was McAndrew, a relative veteran at 29, who bashed out first principles for Sussex with an opening spell of 6-3-7-0, and he returned after lunch to claim the sixth wicket, Jonathan Bushnell trapped lbw to the delight of Farbrace, stood at deep square leg by the entrance to the Sussex Cricket Museum. “Don’t move, you’re lucky there,” was the sage advice offered by a steward.Whether Farbrace moved or not, Durham mounted a recovery of sorts as Robinson and Carse hustled a partnership for the seventh wicket worth 71. Hudson-Prentice found the breakthrough, though Robinson was visibly aghast after opening the face to steer a low catch to Clark at gully. The last three wickets fell in short order to Hudson-Prentice and Crocombe, both bowlers recording their best innings figures for Sussex.
