The Sussex batting coach Grant Flower was forthright after the turnround in fortunes at Hove on day three of the County Championship match against Yorkshire.
Flower said: “There’s been some good cricket played, some poor batting on our side and some average umpiring. The game is totally in Yorkshire’s favour at this stage.
“We noticed that he (Shai Hope) had left his crease once or twice in the first innings, and in the second innings, so we thought if he did it again, we’d run him out. Which was the case.
“His bat wasn’t in the ground and he hadn’t got permission to leave the crease so the ball wasn’t dead.
“We got about four different answers from the umpires so we’re still confused ourselves. It’s totally annoying. The score was 54 for three. The game was totally in the balance. He’s an overseas player. He could have changed the match.”
Flower also had some choice words to say about Ali Orr being run out for the third time in five innings.
He said: “It’s definitely not bad luck. It was sloppy backing up. He should be able to get back in his crease. There’s no excuse. And if it’s the third time, it’s just stupid.
“The guy’s a good player and he’s still young. But this is costing him and it’s costing us as a team.
“There were some poor shots from us on a decent batting pitch. There were other umpiring decisions that went against us when we batted and they can cost you matches.”
Yorkshire all-rounder Dom Bess was more upbeat. He said: “It was a great day. We were 140 behind and we spoke a bit last night about having to stand up in tough situations.
“We’ve obviously been through a pretty tough two seasons and we thought things were going really well when we were driving the Leicester game before we lost. Then we didn’t play for four days at Bristol.
“Granted, we haven’t won it yet. There’s still a bit to do. But today reinforces the things we’ve started drilling in. It’s coming out into effect.
“The way Coady and Mickey came and played at the start of the day, they got us as close as we could to their score.
“Then, we stuck to the task with the ball. They were 40-0 and we took eight wickets in the (afternoon) session.
“If you want to dominate this division – there’s some tough teams who are going to come hard at us because of us being Yorkshire – they’re the sort of days you need. I thought we handled it beautifully. It felt good.
“I also thought Carson, their off-spinner, bowled beautifully and is going to be a great prospect. He showed how to do it in the first innings and I learnt a bit from him.
“It felt like it clicked for us today. Gibbo has just said that he knows he’s been tough on us because he knows what we can do – and that was the proof of it.
“I’d say Shai was not out. We looked back it at and he’s touched his ground immediately after leaving it. I’d say, and I’d need to clarify this rule, that say you were run out and you touched your bat down and it bounced, you’d be not out.
“But to be honest, they are the sort of things that need to go your way in those chases.”
