Glamorgan 155 (51.2 overs) and 42-0 (12 overs)
Sussex 521 (125.1 overs)
Glamorgan trail by 324 runs with 10 wickets remaining
James Coles made a magnificent career-best 224 not out as Sussex built a commanding position after two days against Glamorgan in the Rothesay County Championship at Hove.
The 22-year-old helped Sussex’s last four wickets put on 232 in a total of 521, their highest of the season.
Glamorgan went in again with a deficit of 358 but openers Asa Tribe and Zain ul-Hassan reached 42-0 in 12 overs before the close.
These included three overs from Dom Goodman who has come into the Sussex team in place of Henry Crocombe who was called into England’s squad for the second Test when his Sussex colleague Ollie Robinson reported soreness in his knee.
Coles scored 1,032 runs with four hundreds in his debut Division One campaign in 2025 but came into the game with a modest 253 Championship runs in 12 innings.
There was a hint that he was coming back into form when he made an unbeaten 63 for England Lions against South Africa A earlier this week and it wasn’t until he homed in on his double hundred that he offered a chance today.
He struck 22 fours and took advantage of a short boundary to pepper the pavilion with the majority of his 11 sixes.
Glamorgan must have hoped they could keep their first innings arrears down to manageable proportions when Tom Price was sixth out at 289 and the deficit 134.
But Coles and the lower order had other ideas and a punishing last-wicket stand of 103 – a new record against Glamorgan – between Coles and Jaydev Unadkat, of which the No 11 contributed 12, only added to their pain.
Coles timed the ball exquisitely from the start and he went to his fifty in the over before lunch by taking 15 off the otherwise parsimonious Tim van der Gugten, including two sixes.
A century looked inevitable even then and a straight drive off the same bowler took Coles to his ninth first-class hundred but he was only warming up.
Carson contributed a solid 46 to a seventh-wicket stand of 114 and although Sussex lost three wickets in adding 15 runs, Coles found a reliable ally in Unadkat as he went through the gears against a tiring attack.
Unadkat was dropped on eight and Coles took that as a cue to go for his shots. Two sixes off Tom Norton, one of which sailed out of the ground, took the lead past 300 and even with a double hundred in sight he still attacked.
It ought to have led to his dismissal but he was dropped by Mason Crane on the mid-wicket boundary in the same over that Crane and Sean Dickson nearly collided going for a catch that neither took.
A boundary through backward point off off-spinner Ben Kellaway took Coles to his double hundred and when he walked off after Unadkat was LBW to Crane, every Glamorgan player sportingly shook his hand. He faced 226 balls and batted for a shade over six and a half hours.
It ended up being a chastening day for Glamorgan but, to their credit, it wasn’t until Coles and Unadkat came together that they started to look ragged in the field.
During the first two sessions they had chipped away with van der Gugten and Kellaway going for less than three runs an over, a considerable achievement especially when Coles was finding his range.
Dan Hughes had made 72 before he was pinned by a grubber from Kellaway but that was one of the few balls which misbehaved in batting conditions that were in stark contrast to the first day when 12 wickets fell under heavy cloud cover.
That should give Glamorgan hope that they can still save the game as well as the knowledge that in this fixture in 2023 they conceded a first-innings deficit of 358 but escaped with a draw after scoring 737 in their second innings.
Glamorgan head coach Richard Dawson said: “The openers managed that tricky period at the end really well. Before the last hour the effort was unquestionable and the message was clear before we went out again – we know what we have to do.
“I thought we started the day well and hung in there. Yes, we could have done better compared to some of the other six games we’ve played but James Coles played really well once he got in. Anything off the straight he put away.
“We now have to focus on what we have to do over the next two days. We have got the ability in the dressing room to make big scores so it’s about attitude and how we apply ourselves.”
Coles said: “I’m pretty chuffed. I have been a bit short of runs this season and it could have been quite easy for me to get into a bit of a pit so I am glad I cashed in today.
“It’s been tricky because, with the Championship schedule as it is, with a block of six games, if you get into a run of bad form, it can be tricky to get out of. The change of format in the past two to three weeks has helped me.
“It’s the first time in three years that there has been a bit of a low for me. You reflect a bit more but I am not a huge thinker about it and I’ve always had the self-confidence to know that there is a big score around the corner. One of my super strengths is that I’ve always been able to move on from bad times.
“I got runs for the Lions in the week and definitely helped. When I play straight down the ground I know I’m playing well.
“Jaydev is a seriously good team man and I’m delighted he helped me get over the line to my 200 – it was a massive partnership at the end and hopefully a big moment in the game.”
