Rothesay County Championship, Division One, County Floor, Hove (day three)
Sussex 393: Tear 89, Simpson 61, Carter 59; Chahar 4-97, Worrall 2-60
Surrey 294-7: Lomror 58, Patel 55, Foakes 54; Hunt 3-65
Surrey (4 pts) path Sussex (5 pts) by 99 runs with three wickets remaining
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Sussex off-spinner Jack Carson took his 2 hundredth first-class wicket however half-centuries by Ryan Patel, Ben Foakes and Mahipal Lomror stored Surrey's heads above water at gloomy Hove.
A sluggish pitch provided little help to the Sussex assault however they are going to be happy that Surrey have been by no means in a position to rating at greater than three runs an over on an attritional day.
Surrey completed day three on 294-7 – trailing by 99 – however with solely a day left the sport appears sure to finish in a draw.
That may give Surrey extra respiratory area above the relegation zone and strengthen Sussex's ambition of no less than emulating final season's fourth-place end.
There have been two moments when Sussex sensed a chance. They diminished Surrey to 47-3 when Ollie Pope, parachuted into the workforce after being not noted of England's Check aspect at Edgbaston, was dismissed for simply two.
However Patel and Foakes rebuilt with a stand of 111 in 30 overs earlier than each have been dismissed for the addition of eight runs.
That left Surrey 166-5 however Indian all-rounder Lomror dug in to good impact. He took 35 balls to attain his first boundary and celebrated by cuffing James Coles over the mid-wicket boundary later within the over.
He had a reprieve on 29 when Tom Haines, who had added Pope to a formidable checklist of first-class victims which incorporates Joe Root, returned to the assault and instantly induced a mistimed drive from Lomror. Sub fielder Joey Evison, working again from mid-off, obtained each palms to the ball however couldn't cling on.
Lomror provided one other probability shortly after celebrating his fifty with a pulled six off Jack Leaning. Later within the over Haines couldn't maintain on diving to his left at slip to a thick edge.
Adam Thomas helped Lomror so as to add 98 for the sixth wicket earlier than Sussex hit again with the brand new ball.
Lomror's luck ran out when he dragged a widish supply from Hunt onto center stump and Jaydev Unadkat was lastly rewarded in his fifteenth over when Tom Lawes slashed to backward level, however Thomas and Matt Fisher noticed Surrey safely to stumps, which got here ten overs early due to dangerous mild.
At first of the day, former Surrey Academy participant Sean Hunt who broke by way of after switching to the Cromwell Highway finish, and eliminated each openers in successive overs.
Dom Sibley, dropped on one by Haines off Hunt, nibbled fatally at a ball angled throughout him by the left-armer earlier than Rory Burns was squared up and Leaning took a effective catch at slip.
In his one hundredth first-class recreation, Haines then snuck a ball between Pope's bat and pad as he pushed ahead to hit the off stump.
However because the ball obtained softer batting grew to become comparatively simple. Patel and Foakes gathered quietly and it was a shock when Patel was bowled spherical his legs by Carson attempting to withdraw his bat inside the road shortly after lodging his twentieth first-class fifty.
When Foakes feathered an underedge to John Simpson standing as much as the stumps to reward the persevering Ari Karvelas Sussex's tails have been up, however Lomror rode his luck to assist steer Surrey into calmer waters.
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