Sussex 358-9 declared (83.2 overs) and 277 (85 overs)
Surrey 622 (158.2 overs) and 15-2 4 overs)
Sussex (4 points) lost to Surrey (22 points) by eight wickets
Surrey completed their first win of the Rothesay County Championship season with a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over Sussex at the Kia Oval.
But the hosts were made to work hard for their 22 points with Charlie Tear, Jack Carson and Sussex captain Ollie Robinson all making defiant runs
Starting the final day still 188 runs adrift on 76-4 in their second innings, Sussex were eventually bowled out for 277 in 85 overs, with Surrey needing the second new ball to finish the job.
That left Surrey requiring just 14 in their second innings, achieved in four overs immediately after tea although not before both Rory Burns and Ryan Patel fell leg-before to the fourth and sixth balls of the second over from James Coles.
Left-arm spinner Coles looked fortunate to win his appeal against a sweeping Burns, on one, but Patel was plumb in front and that left Dom Sibley and Ollie Pope to knock off the remaining runs.
The 21-year-old Tear made a career-best 61, his second half-century in four first-class appearances, while Carson scored 48 and Robinson 42.
Sussex opener Tom Haines, who had retired hurt after being struck in the helmet grille by Matt Fisher’s first ball of the innings on the previous day, returned at the fall of the eighth wicket to offer further brave resistance with an unbeaten 20.
Haines, who passed concussion checks overnight, joined Robinson to ensure Surrey were made to bat again, the pair adding a further 35 either side of the new ball being taken at 258-8 from 80 overs.
Robinson, however, fell in the 84th over, thin-edging behind off Jordan Clark, and the innings’ end soon came with No 11 Henry Crocombe leg-before to Fisher for four.
Clark took 3-40 and Fisher 3-52 and the result means that Surrey, after three high-scoring draws, have put their sluggish start to the campaign behind them. It was a first defeat of the season for Sussex.
First to go on day four was opener Daniel Hughes, the Australian left-hander pushing loosely at a ball angled across him from Clark on 39 and edging to Burns at first slip.
It came from the final delivery of Clark’s second over of the morning and, nine overs later, Sean Abbott struck with his second ball of the day after replacing Fisher in Surrey’s attack.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice, on 15, was undone by an outswinger from Abbott that he edged to keeper Jamie Smith.
Tear then held up Surrey in tandem with Carson, who batted with real authority for the second time in the match and in a manner which suggests he may soon find himself being promoted up the Sussex order.
Carson followed up his first innings 105 by getting quickly into his stride again. He skipped down the pitch to hit Dan Lawrence’s off spin high for six and then effortlessly flicked Reece Topley’s left-arm seam high over the mid-wicket ropes for another.
At lunch Tear and Carson had added 64 and after the interval they took their partnership to 82 before Abbott slid one into Carson’s pads to have him leg-before.
Robinson, Sussex’s other first innings century-maker in the memorable ninth wicket stand of 173 with Carson, was immediately away with a stunning straight driven four off Abbott – from the third ball he faced.
And another 44 was soon added for the eighth wicket until Tear chopped on in an attempt to cut away a short ball from Topley. The youngster batted for just over three hours, facing 131 balls and hitting six fours.
Surrey head coach Gareth Batty said: “It was very nice to get over the line today and we are certainly going in the right direction as a team this season.
“We have been putting in some very good work in preparation for matches but we are still not quite at our standards so it’s nice to get the win here.
“We have had some very good batting surfaces so far this season, on which it has been difficult to get wickets, but in this game we had a much more even contest between bat and ball.
“Jordan Clark bowls a wonderful line and makes it hard to know what to play and what not to play but it’s always the group of bowlers who are important, rather than the individual, and this group keep going to the well.
“Any England talk is far above my pay grade but Dom Sibley showed in this match how as an opener he can lay the foundations – as he did brilliantly with Rory Burns – but then also go through the gears and take opportunities to score more frequently.
“His 187 was an exceptional innings while young Adam Thomas, on debut, played with such composure for his hundred.”
Sussex captain Ollie Robinson said: “It’s been a tough four days for us and things didn’t quite go the way we wanted them to on day one.
“We tried hard to get back into the match but we didn’t bat or bowl as well as we did in our first three games this season.
“The pitch started damp and soft and it was a bit of a shame I lost the toss.
“But we have to adapt quicker to conditions and find ways as a batting group to get through situations (like on the first morning).
“We have to find ways of toughing it out and get better scores on the board.
“It was nice to get runs myself but I’d rather have got a golden duck if we could have won the game. I put in a lot of work on my batting during the winter in Australia.
“Jack Carson is always a man you want in your team. He’s such a competitor and so important to us as a team as he showed by the way he batted and bowled in this match.”
