Durham 249-5 (82.1 overs)
Sussex 361 (106.5 overs)
Durham trail Sussex by 112 runs with five first innings wickets remaining.
Durham 3 bonus points, Sussex 4
A half-century from Colin Ackermann helped Durham fight back on day two of their Rothesay County Championship clash with Sussex after Jofra Archer took a wicket on his return to red-ball cricket.
Earlier, James Coles picked up where he left off for Sussex in the morning and helped his side to a competitive total of 361 all out, finishing unbeaten on 148.
Durham’s response against a Sussex bowling attack which included Archer got off to a good start, making it to lunch without loss. But skipper Alex Lees departed just after the break.
Archer then came into the attack and struck during an exciting spell to leave Durham in a spot of bother in the afternoon.
However, Durham bounced back in the evening through a partnership worth 76 between Ackermann and Graham Clark. But the loss of Ackermann with the last ball of the day gives Sussex the edge, with Durham on 249-5 and the deficit still 112.
Sussex had resumed on 322-9 and unbeaten centurion Coles and number 11 Gurinder Sandhu were at the crease for Sussex.
Coles continued to play nicely as he produced a delightful shot down the ground off the bowling of Bas de Leede.
Coles then used his feet to launch one down the ground from George Drissell but the spinner wrapped up the innings just three balls later, bowling Sandhu for eight, leaving Coles unbeaten on 148.
Lees and Emilio Gay opened the batting for Durham and started in a serene manner. Archer then came into the attack and nearly had Gay with his first ball.
Lees was finding things a bit easier as he played a nice on-drive off the bowling of Sandhu which went to the boundary.
Gay, who initially found life tough against Archer, managed to break the shackles with two boundaries, one through point region and the other off his legs.
After lunch, Sussex struck back as Lees went for 34 when he edged a delivery from Fynn Hudson-Prentice and John Simpson made no mistake behind the stumps.
Hudson-Prentice continued to probe and offered few opportunities for run-scoring as Will Rhodes and Gay consolidated after the wicket.
Meanwhile, Archer gave Rhodes and Gay a working over with some short stuff but the Durham batters weren’t falling for the short ball ploy.
The England man changed plans and got that vital wicket as he trapped Gay in front for 37, prompting a big celebration from the 30-year-old.
Archer’s second spell of six overs went for just eight runs so Durham decided to take the game to Carson as Rhodes and Ackermann picked up a couple of boundaries to relieve some pressure.
Rhodes then played a glorious straight drive from a Robinson ball which went to the boundary but he then chipped one straight to Daniel Hughes at cover for 24 to hand the economical Hudson-Prentice a second wicket of the day.
That brought Durham’s OIlie Robinson to the crease before tea and he decided to take on Hudson-Prentice, picking up 11 runs from four balls, more than he’d gone for in his previous eight overs.
Archer returned after tea, with Durham’s Robinson edging one which dropped just short of John Simpson, but he bounced back with two consecutive fours including a dab to third region.
Ackermann then played a glorious cover drive off the bowling of Archer for four but the fluent Robinson fell to Sandhu for 34 as he nicked one down the legside and Simpson produced an excellent diving catch to his left.
Graham Clark came to the crease and absorbed a bit of pressure before he started to put his foot to the accelerator with back-to-back pull shots from Hudson-Prentice going to the boundary and he followed that up with a cut shot for four.
Ackermann joined Clark in the hunt for boundaries when he swept a Coles delivery to the rope and the number four passed fifty for the fourth time this season from 115 balls.
Throughout the innings, Ackermann had looked good but, with the final ball of the day, he was bowled by Sandhu for 65, leaving Durham five down with a deficit of 112.
Durham head coach Ryan Campbell had some praise for the way Sussex played out their first innings this morning.
He said: “Tailenders! They spend all their time batting instead of bowling. Hats off! They played really well and their young man (James Coles) making 140 not out – it’s just another great English youngster coming through the ranks. If you were an England fan, you’d be pretty excited.
“It’s good to see young players getting opportunities and making big runs. The game is in a healthy state.”
On chasing the Sussex total of 361, Campbell said: “If you bat big, you can go past them and have wickets up your sleeve.
“That obviously was the goal. That still is the goal. A wicket in the last over obviously leaves a bitter taste in the mouth but I think we can still control the game as we’ve got a lot of batting to come.
“We’re kind of happy but still disappointed at stumps. We have to score well. We’re not just going to take up time.
“We’re going to score as fast as we can because you need to take 20 wickets to win a game of cricket. At the halfway point, I’m pretty sure that both teams are excited about where the game’s at.”
Sussex and England bowler Jofra Archer said: “We think we left a few runs out there. Obviously 300 runs looks good on the board but given the ball and given the conditions I think we left about 100 runs out there.
“Durham could probably come back and get a lead but we’ll come back tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get them out quickly.
“It’s a bit hard with the ball and the conditions. It’ll be quite hard to squeeze a result out of the game but we’re going to try to give ourselves the best opportunity.”
