Sussex 152 (46.2 overs) and 335 (97.2 overs)
Somerset 338 (105.1 overs) and 150-5 (39.2 overs)
Somerset beat Sussex by five wickets. Somerset 21 points. Sussex 3pts.
Lewis Gregory led from the front with a brilliant 89 not out as Somerset completed a five-wicket Rothesay County Championship Division One win over Sussex at the Cooper Associates Ground, in Taunton.
Set just 150 to win on a benign pitch, the hosts reached their target in an additional half hour to the scheduled day’s play. And skipper Gregory took advantage of his new position as opener to hit 12 fours in a sparkling 118-ball innings.
Earlier, an unbeaten 82 off 164 balls from Sussex skipper John Simpson helped the visitors to extend their second innings total from an overnight 127-4 to 335 all out.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice contributed 41 and James Coles 39, while Jack Leach finished with four for 51.
It was too little too late as Somerset took 21 points from a second successive Championship victory while their opponents had to be content with three.
Sussex hopes of a fightback were dealt an early blow when Craig Overton struck with his first delivery of the day at the start of the second over. Tom Alsop, playing defensively, edged a low catch to Gregory at first slip.
Almost immediately it was 129-6 as James Coles called for a single to mid-wicket to get off the mark and James Hayes was run out by Tom Banton’s direct hit at the wicketkeeper’s end.
Coles soon began to time the ball sweetly. He and Simpson held up the home side’s victory bid with a stand of 66, both looking to play positively on a now flat wicket.
Coles had struck six fours when attempting another attacking shot off Jack Leach and driving in the air to Tom Lammonby at mid-off. At 195-7, his side led by just nine runs.
Simpson looked untroubled and found another partner in good touch as Hudson-Prentice helped take the total to 224-7 at lunch.
More Sussex resistance followed the interval, aided by the rare sight of Overton dropping Hudson-Prentice at second slip off Leach. With 27 runs added, the second new ball was taken.
A pulled four off Henry took Simpson to a half-century off 126 balls. It was the sixth boundary of an innings that was starting to frustrate the Somerset bowlers.
When Hudson-Prentice smacked Henry for six over the short boundary on the town side of the ground, the lead had grown to 87.
The shot provoked quick revenge from the New Zealand seamer who with the next delivery sent Hudson-Prentice’s off stump flying to end a partnership of 78, which had occupied 28 overs.
Henry soon followed up by having Nathan McAndrew caught behind after moving briskly to 16. Still Simpson refused to buckle and with last man Ollie Robinson at the other end, he went on the attack.
Robinson also played aggressively in a last-wicket stand of 44 before being caught at slip for 18 pushing forward to Leach. Tea was taken with 35 overs left in the day’s play.
There were early scares for the hosts when Gregory edged the second delivery of their second innings from Robinson to first slip, only to be reprieved by a no-ball call, and Josh Davey was dropped in the slips off McAndrew.
Davey soon fell to Robinson, bowled by a full delivery, and it was 11-2 when Lammonby fell lbw to the same bowler falling across his stumps.
That became 30-3 as James Rew uncharacteristically chased a wide ball from McAndrew and edged through to Simpson.
There was tension aplenty as Tom Abell took 25 balls to get off the mark before a square cut for four off Hudson-Prentice.
But Gregory was proving a calming influence and when he moved to a confident half-century off 73 balls, with six fours, Somerset were more than halfway to their target.
Left-arm spinner James Coles removed Abell for 27 and Tom Banton for 15 but Gregory saw his side home, striking three boundaries in an over from Jack Carson before deservedly hitting the winning run.
James Rew said: “Lewis Gregory tells us he opened the batting at an early stage in his career and it’s great to see him return to the role and play so well.
“He was brilliant today. Thankfully the second delivery which he edged to slip was a no-ball or we would really have been under pressure.
“Successive wins will hopefully mean our season has turned and we can go up to Durham for our next game in confident mood.”
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “We can be proud of our efforts today. Losing two wickets, including a run-out, so early we might have let the game drift away, but John Simpson played brilliantly as he has done so often since joining us and we showed real fight.
“We know we did not bowl well enough on the first day, with not enough deliveries that would have hit the stumps. Somerset have a great attack but they bowled that bit fuller and found the edges.
“So many games are decided on first innings. Today we had Lewis Gregory caught off a no-ball and he went on to play brilliantly. The lesson is that you can’t give quality players a second chance.
“Somerset are a very good side and they deserved to win. If we can finish above them in the table, we will have had a great season because I am sure they are better than their early results suggested.”
