| LV= County Championship Group Three, The 1st Central County Ground, Hove (day one): |
| Sussex 161-7 (55 overs): Head 47, Ibrahim 41*; van der Gugten 3-26 |
| Glamorgan: Yet to bat |
| Sussex 0 pts, Glamorgan 2 pts |
| Scorecard |
Glamorgan seamer Timm van der Gugten helped restrict Sussex to 161-7 as they struggled in gloomy conditions after surprisingly deciding to bat first.
Australia’s Travis Head top-scored with 47, his best this year, before falling leg-before to Van der Gugten.
Dan Ibrahim, 16, played maturely for 41 not out in only his second match, having made a debut half-century in Sussex’s last Championship game.
Play was cut to just 55 overs by overnight rain and further showers.
Sussex are missing a full team of players because of Covid-related absences, injuries to Phil Salt and Chris Jordan plus George Garton’s England call, while Glamorgan are missing their isolating overseas pair of Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser.
The home side saw their top order blown away by Van der Gugten (3-26), with Michael Hogan (2-33) remaining economical.
Head and Ben Brown (22) threatened a revival before the latter nicked Dan Douthwaite through to Chris Cooke, while Head provided the strange sight of a batsman walking before being given out lbw, not playing a shot.
But Ibrahim and Will Beer (19) put together the first half-century stand of the innings, adding 65 and making batting look easier as the ball grew older.
Hogan then struck with the last ball of the day to have Beer caught at short backward square leg and tilt the balance back to the visitors.
Sussex batsman Travis Head told BBC Radio Sussex:
“I was disappointed not to go on, but I’ve worked hard over the summer and I felt like I’ve been playing alright in the T20s.
“The T20s came at a nice time so I could free myself out and felt good with the movement patterns, though I was disappointed not to go on [today] and get a big score to set the rest of the summer up.
“The sun was out when we did the toss, and looking at the make-up of our team with Will Beer and Jack Carson in there, it’s more spin dominant.
“So we wanted to get big runs, then hopefully a dry wicket will deteriorate and we can put them under pressure on the fourth day.”
Glamorgan bowler Timm van der Gugten told BBC Sport Wales:
“We had pretty nice conditions to bowl in, it was overcast and the ball was swinging around, so I thought we all bowled really well as a group and it was nice to finish on a wicket with the last ball.
“We were probably going to bowl first, but you never know what’s going to happen overhead. The ball hasn’t swung much this season with the red Duke but this was a bit different and it was nice to capitalise on that.
“Them having won the toss and batting, we would have taken that [score] and hopefully we can knock over the last three wickets and get batting.”
