Northamptonshire 371 (Procter 92, Nair 57, Seales 4-86) and 170 for 9 (Keogh 55) drew with Sussex 478 for 9 declared (Haines 133, Coles 78, Hudson-Prentice 73, Carson 61, Zaib 4-84)
Bad light and decided resistance by Lewis McManus annoyed Sussex’s bid to drag off an unlikely victory over Northamptonshire on a gripping last day at Hove.
McManus batted for an hour as 4 companions got here and went and Northants lurched to 170 for 9 earlier than umpires Paul Baldwin and Surendiran Shanmugam determined it was too gloomy even for spin with Northants forward by 63.
The lack of greater than 100 overs ultimately proved decisive however Sussex can have drawn a variety of encouragement after making many of the working, particularly on the final two days. They took 15 factors and Northants 13.
Having established a first-innings lead of 107, they lowered Northants to 57 for 4. Skipper Luke Procter (41) settled the nerves earlier than left-arm spinner James Coles revived Sussex hopes with three of the 4 wickets that fell in 7.1 overs after tea that left them 152 for 8.
McManus and Ben Sanderson resisted for eight overs till the light improved sufficiently to allow Sussex skipper John Simpson to convey again his quicks Jayden Seales and Ollie Robinson for two overs every.
Robinson responded with an unplayable yorker to uproot Sanderson’s center stump, a becoming solution to have fun his four-hundredth first-class wicket. Spinners Coles and Jack Carson returned however the light did not enhance and the gamers shook arms shortly after 6pm.
Sussex had declared their first innings on 478 for 9 after including 127 in 20 overs to gather most batting factors. Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Danny Lamb prolonged their seventh wicket stand to 99 from simply 14.1 overs with Lamb contributing 41 earlier than Chris Tremain held a wonderful low catch at midwicket off Sanderson.
Hudson-Prentice, who made 9 Championship fifties final season, demonstrated his effectiveness once more with 73 from 60 balls and it took a intelligent piece of bowling by Tremain to take away him when he held one again and Hudson-Prentice drove to long-on.
Even the usually frugal Sanderson suffered when Carson hit him for three sixes in a vigorous 61 from 53 balls. Aiming to clear midwicket once more he was bowled to offer left-arm spinner Zaib his fourth wicket.
Robinson and Seales plundered 30 runs from ten balls earlier than the declaration left Northants with 4 overs earlier than lunch which they could not negotiate unscathed as Seales produced a beautiful away-swinger which Justin Broad edged to 3rd slip.
Sussex gained additional encouragement with three wickets in ten overs after lunch. Emilio Homosexual (20) misplaced his off stump to offer Seales his sixth wicket of the match and Karun Nair edged Robinson to 3rd slip with Coles taking an excellent catch low to his left.
George Bartlett drove offspinner Carson onto the roof of the South Stand solely to perish two balls later earlier than a stand of 73 between Procter and Rob Keogh steered Northants into calmer waters, for some time not less than.
Coles added to his three first-innings wickets with three extra after tea. Zaib was effectively caught at slip attempting to information the ball to 3rd man; Keogh was lbw to a faster ball for a well-made 55; and Michael Finan taken at second slip on the drive. Carson sparked the collapse when he went around the wicket to have Procter leg earlier than as he aimed by midwicket.
Robinson completed with 2 for 19 from ten overs in three spells and bowled at a great tempo all through. He can have been happy to get by 32 overs in what was solely his second first-class match since July 2023.
