An expert six-wicket haul from Jaydev Unadkat helped Sussex to just their second County Championship win of the season in a thrilling final day against Leicestershire at the 1st Central County Ground.
The Foxes started the day 277 runs behind, with seven wickets in hand. They were bowled out for 483, only 16 runs shy of their mammoth target of 499.
Despite their seemingly impossible task, Leicestershire fell just short of what would have been the third highest successful chase in County Championship history – getting as many as they did thanks to two brilliant innings from Ben Cox and Tom Scriven.
The former played a steady, accumulative hand, grinding his way to 58 runs from 125 balls in a patient but incredibly handy effort.
The latter took the attack to Sussex. Scriven was ruthless when facing their two young spinners, smashing 13 boundaries in what is his highest ever first-class score of 78.
Particularly assertive was the huge six he dispatched off spin bowler Jack Carson in the 111th over. Getting down on one knee, the right hander aimed a mighty slog sweep far over the boundary rope.
The pair built on the solid foundation established yesterday by Colin Ackermann and Umar Amin.
Having taken the visitors to 221-3 at stumps on day three, they went about their work professionally in the first hour, adding 77 to their overnight score before a blistering few deliveries from Carson sent both back to the sheds in the 79th over.
After sweeping the spinner for four, centurion Ackermann was bowled for 136, edging a short, wide delivery on to his stumps. The attacking Amin didn’t last much longer, trapped lbw just two balls later by the fired up Carson. Despite his four tests for Pakistan, Amin’s score of 94 was his highest for Leicestershire.
With the mammoth run partnership finally broken, new man Rehan Ahmed went on the offensive, walking down the track to flick Ari Karvelas for an audacious boundary before he fell for 29, caught behind off the bowling of Jaydev Unakdat.
With only four wickets remaining and 166 runs left to get, Sussex looked all set for a crushing victory.
But they went on to concede a further 120 runs before the fall of the next wicket when Unadkat found Scriven’s edge to finally dismiss the 24-year-old.
The excellent Indian seamer then took the final three Leicestershire wickets in a pinpoint spell. Steaming in from the Cromwell Road end, Unadkat found the outside edges of both Cox and Scott Currie, who were caught by first slip Tom Alsop and wicket-keeper Oli Carter respectively.
With defeat a whisker away, he skittled veteran seamer Chris Wright with a toe-crushing yorker to win the game.
Unadkat’s final figures of 6 for 94 from 32.4 overs represent an astonishing effort on a gruelling day’s play.
Victory ensures that Sussex remain in with a sniff at promotion. Their potential escape from the Second Division depends on other results and will require victories in their remaining two fixtures against Derbyshire and Gloucestershire. The first of these starts next Tuesday (19 September) at the Incora County Ground in Derby.
After the close of play, head coach Paul Farbrace said: “For two and a half days, I thought we were excellent. We played really good cricket and we were the only team that was going to win the game.
“On the third evening, we played some pretty ordinary cricket which gave Leicestershire a chance of winning. Today, apart from Jack Carson’s two wickets in one over, Leicestershire were bossing the game.
“There were long periods today where we didn’t bowl particularly well and we fielded poorly. But the most important thing was getting over the line in a really tight game. It’s a really important win for this team.
“Jaydev’s quality got us over the line which is fantastic. It’s what we signed him for. His contribution to our team has been outstanding.
“The one thing that this team has shown is real resilience to fight, get stuck in and work hard.”
