Sussex dominate Gloucestershire on day one at Bristol

Gloucestershire 109 (43.4 overs)
Sussex 149 (50 overs)
Sussex lead by 40 runs with six wickets first innings remaining

Jaydev Unadkat claimed four wickets before lunch as Sussex took another step towards clinching the Division Two title with a dominant display on the opening day of the Vitality County Championship match with Gloucestershire at Bristol.

The runaway leaders bowled out the home side for just 109 after losing the toss. Left-arm seamer Unadkat finished with four for 32 while Ollie Robinson and Tom Clark claimed three wickets each. Tom Price top scored with 25 in a sorry Gloucestershire batting effort.

Sussex then put the nature of the pitch at the Seat Unique Stadium in perspective by posting 147-4 in reply, with Tom Haines making 40, Tom Alsop 37 and James Coles 36 not out. Off-spinner Ollie Price took two for 13.

Just three days after the euphoria of winning the Vitality Blast, Gloucestershire were on the back foot from the third ball of their innings when Joe Phillips, making his first Championship appearance of the season, edged a defensive shot off Unadkat through to wicketkeeper John Simpson.

Chris Dent soon followed, snapped up at second slip by Clark off Robinson to make it 4-2. Miles Hammond looked in good touch and hit a six over mid-wicket off Henry Crocombe in moving to 22 before miscuing a catch to mid-on off Unadkat, who had switched to the Ashley Down Road End.

The experienced Indian seamer struck again with the total on 46 as James Bracey edged to third slip and it was 49-5 when Graeme van Buuren was caught behind aiming a pull shot off Clark.

With only two runs added, Ollie Price, on 11, fell to a similar shot, a thicker top edge that sent the ball looping to Simpson and gave Unadkat his fourth wicket. At lunch, his figures were four for 29 from 11 overs and the scoreboard read 68-6.

That became 75-7 early in the afternoon session when Zafar Gohar was bowled by Robinson pushing forward and 89-8 when the same bowler had Zaman Akhter caught behind off a back foot defensive shot.

When Clark completed the rout by dismissing Tom Price to a spectacular diving slip catch by Alsop and last man Dom Goodman caught at midwicket, Gloucestershire had been bowled out in just 43.4 overs under virtually cloudless skies. Clark finished with three for 17 and Robinson three for 33.

There appeared nothing in the pitch to account for Gloucestershire’s slump. It had more pace and carry than is often the case at Bristol but Sussex soon found the ball coming on to the bat nicely.

Openers Haines and Oli Carter took the score to 27 in the tenth over before the latter was caught behind pushing forward to Akhter. By tea, the total had advanced to 54-1, with Haines unbeaten on 25 and Clark 19 not out.

Having added just two to his score, Clark aimed to hit Ollie Price over the top off only the third ball of the final session and holed out to mid-on. The bowler then went from hero to villain, spilling a sharp chance at second slip offered by Haines, on 26, off Akhter.

Haines had another narrow escape on 34 when edging left-arm spinner Gohar to short leg where Philips just failed to cling on to what would have been a brilliant one-handed catch above his head.

But, having added six to his score, the opener edged Goodman to second slip where Price this time made no mistake.

By then, Sussex trailed by only 19 runs. Coles reverse swept Gohar for four to put them in front at 111-3 before hitting three successive boundaries in a Tom Price over to bring up a half-century stand with Alsop off 14.3 overs in bright early evening sunshine.

Alsop played solidly for 101 balls but surrendered his wicket tamely, cutting a short ball from Ollie Price straight to backward point with only two full overs left in the day.

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “It was an interesting day. All the chat was about the wicket turning but it was the seamers who were the mainstay. There is a long way to go in the game and a lot of cricket to be played.

“The pitch had good carry and bounce. There was a little bit of grip and all the seamers enjoyed bowling on it. You want everyone involved in the game so it looks a good cricket wicket to me.

“Jaydev has been excellent and showed why we brought him back and why he is coming back again next year. He is an outstanding bowler whose skills are well suited to English cricket and he runs in and tries hard every day.

“It’s a cliché, but we keep saying that we just have to focus on what we do. Having said that, of course you get drawn to looking at other scores and we know Yorkshire have missed out on two batting points today.

“A win here would be nice but we are a long way off that. We will have to bat well because the ball will turn as the game goes on and we have to bat last.”

Gloucestershire off-spinner Ollie Price said: “It was a tough day. We came across a team with a very good bowling attack who were right on it.

“Their two opening bowlers were fantastic and put us under a lot of pressure. We didn’t quite have the answers, which is frustrating, but we bowled well ourselves without some luck at times and fought back to give ourselves a chance.

“We expected the pitch to turn because it is quite dry and selected Zafar Gohar, Ed Middleton and myself with that in mind. But you can’t overlook the fact that Ollie Robinson and Jaydev Unadkat are fantastic operators with the new ball.

“I feel I have been bowling well. Sometimes here the pitch doesn’t do much quickly but I have been happy with the way I have performed all season. Maybe I got a couple of cheap wickets today but I am feeling comfortable with the ball.”