Sussex 169 (59 overs)
Nottinghamshire 164-3 (37 overs)
England’s Josh Tongue picked up a second consecutive five-wicket haul at Trent Bridge as Nottinghamshire dismissed Sussex for 169 before closing on 164-3 on the opening day of their Rothesay County Championship clash.
The two counties started the day joint top of Division One but the home side ended the day with the upper hand.
Tongue, in only his third match for Nottinghamshire after a 2024 season wrecked by injury, finished with five for 44 to go with his second-innings five for 66 against Durham on his county debut.
He generated some rapid pace and was well backed up by Brett Hutton who continued his early-season form with four for 53. Oli Carter top scored for Sussex with 46.
Nottinghamshire lost England’s Ben Duckett cheaply but captain Haseeb Hameed closed unbeaten on 67, having scored 297 runs for once out in his last three innings.
Asked to bat first on a green-tinged pitch, with the ball doing plenty on an overcast morning, Sussex were soon in trouble. Hutton rapidly had them 22-3 with wickets in his first, third and fifth overs.
The in-form Tom Haines, who had scores of 141, 174 and 69 not out in three innings before this one, departed for a second-ball duck, caught at third slip.
Hutton followed up by trapping Tom Clark in front, before Liam Patterson-White pulled off an outstanding catch at gully to remove Daniel Hughes.
When Tongue made his presence felt by pinning Tom Alsop leg before with a full and fast delivery, Sussex were 28-4 inside the first hour.
A recovery to 75-4 at lunch followed as Danny Coles and Carter weathered the storm but a wicket more apiece from a refreshed Hutton and Tongue set the visitors back again early in the afternoon.
Tongue roughed up Coles enough to force a mistake as the all-rounder miscued straight to mid-on and Hutton claimed his fourth victim as John Simpson, the captain, nudged at one outside off stump to give Duckett a routine catch at second slip.
England opener Duckett is making his first Championship appearance for a year, with young batter Freddie McCann giving way. All-rounder Lyndon James pulled out with a viral infection.
Sussex are without Danny Lamb, who has joined Sean Hunt and Henry Crocombe on the county’s list of injured seamers.
Carter justified his inclusion as an extra batter, striking seven boundaries as one of only two or three who looked able to hang around long with Tongue hungry to prove himself to be fully firing after all his injury woes.
In the event he was undone by Farhan Ahmed, the 17-year-old off-spinner, who had him caught behind going down the pitch to drive.
Tongue, deployed in short and particularly sharp bursts, returned for a fourth spell with Sussex 166-7 and finished off the innings in just one over.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice edged to first slip and Jack Carson to second, with Jayden Seales tickling one to Kyle Verreynne down the leg side, the last two wickets coming from consecutive balls.
Nottinghamshire’s first innings started with runs flowing at the rate of four to five an over, albeit helped by a somewhat wayward opening spell from West Indies pace bowler Seales.
But they were checked by the loss of wickets in the ninth and 11th overs. Seales picked up the first, ironically at the end of the over that had cost three Ben Slater boundaries and a no-ball. Slater was caught at gully seemingly trying to pull out of the shot.
Duckett, who had been tested by Ollie Robinson, then went hard at a ball without too much foot movement and was caught behind off an inside edge, a deserved reward for a good spell from the England seamer.
Joe Clarke’s indifferent start to the season continued when he was well caught low down at second slip off Hudson-Prentice. But Hameed and Haynes had the upper hand in the 17 overs that remained.
Josh Tongue said: “After getting them four down at lunch, we knew if we just stuck in there and got those last six wickets in the afternoon, we would be in a good position.
“And to finish the day with Has (Hameed Haseeb) and Haynesy there it could not have been a much better day really. Has is incredible to watch, the way he goes about his business.
“The way Brett Hutton bowled, putting them under the pump as he did with Warwickshire at Edgbaston last week, was amazing.
“I feel like I’m getting better each time I’m bowling. I had a very good winter going into this season. Getting the overs into me, getting that robustness in the body to bowl long spells, is what I’m aiming for.
“The pace is there and it is just now about getting that consistency into my lines and lengths and it feels like the more times I’m bowling, the more I’m getting that.”
Oli Carter said: “We’ve got to leave behind what happened today and focus on getting the next seven wickets and hopefully get us into a good position in the game.
“We are a bit disappointed. We didn’t think that was the way the day was going to go and we’ve got to look now towards getting the last seven wickets and then hopefully build up a lead in the second innings.
“They have a very strong attack and they are up there at the top of the Division for a reason. Coming up from Division Two, the cricket is a bit more relentless, very competitive and you don’t get a break, but hopefully that stands me in good stead and makes me play better.
“I tried to be as positive as I could while I was batting, getting into the right positions, and hopefully build on that in the second innings.”
