Result: Susssex (346 & 302; Salt 72; Weighell 3/68; 22 points) beat Durham (385 & 131; Garton 3/20; Whittingham 3/26; 7 points) by 132 runs
Durham’s home 2017 season ended in defeat as Sussex ran out winners by 132 runs in the Specsavers County Championship match at Emirates Riverside.
The hosts were 131/9 when play was halted just before 2pm due to rain.
But on the resumption at 4.15 it was all over in six balls as Graham Onions drove Chris Jordan straight to mid-off.
There were three wickets each today for 20-year-old George Garton and Stuart Whittingham.
Jordan also picked up three, his two early ones coming as Durham crumbled to 61/7 before James Weighell put bat to ball in contributing 38 to a stand of 50 with Brydon Carse.
Whittingham took two in three balls after lunch when he swung one through left-hander Weighell to take out the middle stump, then Chris Rushworth played on.
That brought in Onions as he & Carse survived for 20 balls before the rain arrived.
Durham were all out for 131, ending their seven-match unbeaten run, after resuming on five without loss in pursuit of 264 on a glorious morning.
They got through the day’s first eight overs without mishap but Tom Latham’s exit for four with the total on 19 sparked a collapse.
Whittingham opened up and had Latham lbw when propping forward, Keaton Jennings was bowled by Jordan & when Garton replaced Whittingham his fourth ball was slanted across Cameron Steel, who edged it to Michael Burgess.
Then Jordan gained an LBW verdict with what was probably not his best shout and his victim, Graham Clark, clearly thought it had nipped back far enough to be missing leg.
Paul Collingwood appeared to be Durham’s last hope, but he called for a second run to third man, and despite his despairing dive he couldn’t beat Garton’s throw.
Another ball slanted across a right-hander had Michael Richardson caught at second slip by Harry Finch and Garton had his third wicket when Ryan Pringle pushed half forward and was lbw.
Carse again showed his batting prowess as he followed his unbeaten 61 in the first innings by making 23 not out.
Close, Day Three: Durham (385 & 5/0) require 259 runs to beat Sussex (346 & 302; Salt 72; Weighell 3/68)
Durham require 259 runs to beat Sussex on a nailbiting final day of the home 2017 season at Emirates Riverside.
In only his seventh first-class match, Philip Salt batted very responsibly after a cavalier start as Sussex totalled 302 in their second innings.
Needing 264 to win, Durham had faced three of the scheduled nine overs when bad light intervened, where Keaton Jennings took the score to five with Tom Latham.
Durham were lifted into a first innings lead by Brydon Carse in the morning session as the all-rounder notched his maiden fifty in first-class cricket.
Sussex, who trailed by 39, then slipped from 101 without loss to 177/5 second time around.
But Salt, who had a previous best of 46, scored 11 off his first four balls and was ably assisted by wicketkeeper Michael Burgess, Ollie Robinson and Jordan.
Salt’s was the second career-best of the day following Carse’s unbeaten 61 for Durham.
Resuming on 21, the South Africa-born paceman picked up both Stuart Whittingham and George Garton behind square for six.
He dominated a stand of 84 with Graham Clark, who moved on from his overnight 73 to 88 before a ball from Jordan skidded on to have him lbw.
When Jordan rested it took only one gentle loosener for Robinson to complete a five-wicket haul. Chris Rushworth clipped it straight to square leg but Robinson, who had a sore side the previous evening after bowling 25 overs, sent down just the one more to finish with five for 69.
Whittingham picked up his only wicket when last man Graham Onions spooned to extra cover and Durham were all out for 385.
The lead was quickly wiped out by Sussex’s acting captain Luke Wells and Harry Finch, who had 50 on the board in 11 overs to lunch and looked even more comfortable in adding a further 50.
Both were playing away from their bodies with limited foot movement when they edged catches. Finch was first to go for 37, James Weighell claiming the first of his three wickets with his second ball.
Following his 258 at Hove and 122 in the first innings here, Wells again batted impressively to make 58 and take his season’s tally against Durham to 438, while Laurie Evans made only four before edging a loose shot off Weighell.
Luke Wright fell lbw to the first ball of off-spinner Ryan Pringle’s second spell & Stiaan van Zyl was also unlucky, being caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Michael Richardson off Onions.
Salt was eighth out when he got a big inside edge into his stumps trying to run Jennings to third man.
Jordan’s attempts to protect the last two proved futile as left-hander Garton was bowled by a sharp leg break from Cameron Steel and Whittingham was run out when called back for a second to deep mid-wicket.
Close, Day Two: Durham (321/6; Latham 77, Clark 73*, Steel 73; Robinson 4/69) trail Sussex (346; Wells 122, van Zyl 92; Rushworth 4/64) by 25 runs
Seventies from Tom Latham, Graham Clark & Cameron Steel inched Durham to within 25 runs of Sussex on Day Two of the Specsavers County Championship match at Emirates Riverside.
Clark’s unbeaten 73 carried Durham to 321/6 at the close of play before bad light, having intervened earlier in the session, curtailed play shortly before six o’clock.
Ollie Robinson’s mixture of spin & seam revived Sussex & he removed both Tom Latham and Cameron Steel after they had batted through the day’s first 44 overs to take their second-wicket stand to 163.
Latham was fortunate to survive a Stuart Whittingham lbw appeal on 37, but both batsmen looked supremely comfortable in the first hour after lunch.
Both got out to miscued pulls off Robinson, however. Steel fell for 73 when he found George Garton at deep mid-wicket and four overs later Latham skied to Laurie Evans at deep backward square to depart for 77.
With Danny Briggs left out, Robinson provided the only spin option and he tried it again for three overs before taking the second new ball & his seventh delivery had Ryan Pringle lbw on the back foot.
Left-armer Garton conceded 34 in his first six-over spell but claimed the scalp of Paul Collingwood in his second.
The Durham skipper got off the mark by driving wide of mid-on for four, but two balls later Garton skidded one through to pin him LBW.
Jordan’s only success came from a ball which moved so sharply away off the pitch that Michael Richardson would have done extremely well to touch it.
That finished a mini run of consecutive wickets for the visitors but Clark began pulling strongly and had eight fours in his 72-ball 50.
He dominated a stand of 57 with Pringle and enjoyed better support in an unbroken partnership of 42 with Brydon Carse.
Close, Day One: Durham (8/1) trail Sussex (346; Wells 122, van Zyl 92; Rushworth 4/64, Jennings 3/37) by 338 runs
A post-tea haul of seven wickets, five of which came with the new ball, restricted Sussex to 346 on Day One of the Specsavers County Championship match at Emirates Riverside.
After striking in the first over of the day, Chris Rushworth added three more to finish with 4/64 to take him past 350 first-class wickets for the club.
Captaining Sussex for the first time, Luke Wells led from the front with his third century of the season to follow his 258 against the same opponents at Hove in May.
His partnership with Stiaan van Zyl had lifted the visitors 191/1 after the stand-in skipper’s decision to have a coin toss, which Paul Collingwood duly won & send the opposition into bat.
On 37, Wells reached 1,000 championship runs for the first time, shrugging off the first ball dismissal of Finch to share a second-wicket stand of 186 with van Zyl.
There was much playing and missing as the ball nipped around in the first hour, with Rushworth and Graham Onions well supported by the pacy Brydon Carse in his second appearance of the season.
The edges which eluded Durham then arrived when the second new ball was taken and the last five wickets went down for 18 runs in 6.3 overs.
Out of the promotion frame, Sussex handed opportunities to Laurie Evans and Philip Salt.
But both fell to Keaton Jennings, who also strangled Wells down the leg side with an innocuous ball and had figures of 5-0-22-3 at one stage.
Wells clattered anything short and wide of off stump, as when he carved Carse over backward point for the four which took him to 50 off 101 balls.
He accelerated to complete his century off 178 balls by accepting a gift from Rushworth, which he leg glanced for his 13th four.
Van Zyl scored one off his first 26 balls but two whipped pulls for four off successive balls from Carse got him going.
He forged ahead of Wells but fell for 92 when he sliced a drive off James Weighell to point then Evans made only 19 before edging behind off the penultimate ball before tea.
Salt hit two lovely fours off Jennings in his 11 before falling lbw attempting to pull a ball which kept a shade low.
Luke Wright hit several powerful drives through the covers in making 43 off 68 balls and put on 53 with Michael Burgess, deputising for injured captain Ben Brown.
Both departed in the first two overs with the new ball, Burgess being a shade unlucky when he played a ball from Rushworth into his stumps with just enough force to remove a bail. Onions nipped one back sharply to take out Wright’s off stump.
Ollie Robinson edged Rushworth to Tom Latham at second slip, George Garton turned Onions straight to mid-wicket, and Sam Whittingham got an inside edge to leave Rushworth with 4/64.
With three overs to face before the close, Durham made it through 17 balls without trouble before the 18th trapped Jennings LBW.