Glamorgan inflict Sussex’s fourth defeat in five in One Day Cup

Ingram, returning to the side, hit 73 off 75 deliveries, with eight fours and a vast six over mid-on, as Glamorgan chased down a modest target to win with 21 balls remaining. But it might have been a different story if the powerful left-hander had not been dropped by Harrison Ward at point off Sean Hunt when he had made just three.

Glamorgan lost opener Tom Bevan in the second over, bowled by Fynn Hudson-Prentice for a duck. But then Ingram and Eddie Byrom (69) piled on 145 for the second wicket in 23 overs to put Glamorgan on top.

Glamorgan continued to lose wickets - with cameos coming from captain Kiran Carlson and Ben Kellaway - against a tight ring of Sussex fielders. But a typically cool-head innings by Sam Northeast, who made an unbeaten 40, saw his side home.

Sussex’s Fynn Hudson-Prentice said: “It was another tough day. It’s not been our competition this season. We got bogged down a bit with the bat. They took wickets at regular intervals. That made us hard for us to put the accelerator down until late on.

“With the ball, I thought we started pretty well again. But they put on a big partnership early on, which we weren’t able to do. They got away from us. We did show that when we bowled consistently how hard it was out there. But it was too little too late. There was swing and seam movement, and the pitch was slow. But we haven’t had the same rhythm in this competition that we had last year.

"Confidence isn’t that high. When you’re losing games it’s hard. You go through ups and downs and right now we’re going through a bit of a down patch, so we hope we can bounce back. We’ve got three games left, two at home, and we need to start winning games because people keep coming out in force and we’re letting them down.”

Both sides had gone into the match with one victory in four matches and needing to win all their remaining fixtures to have any realistic chance of progressing to the latter stages of the competition.

Sussex decided to strengthen their batting by bringing in Ward for his first game in the competition this season. Sussex had chosen to bat but their innings was a strange affair, the best of it coming in a stand of 113 in 15 overs between James Coles (59 off 56) and Hudson-Prentice (66 off 54).

Ward and Tom Haines made a ponderous start, with just 14 runs coming off the first five overs. But they accelerated with such purpose that they scored 50 off the first ten-over powerplay and looked set for a total of well over 300.

They lost momentum when the unfortunate Ward, who had struck a six and five fours in a 32-ball 35, was run out responding Haines’ call for a quick single that really didn’t exist, especially as the ball went to such a fine fielder as Carlson.

After that the top order Sussex batsmen struggled on a slow pitch, which Glamorgan exploited by bowling 29 overs of spin, with Carlson and Kellaway impressive, though the slow left-armer Prem Sisodiya proved a little expensive.

Durham had scored 427 on this track earlier in the month. But yesterday, until Coles and Hudson-Prentice got together, and Glamorgan batted later in the day, scoring quick runs looked looked tricky, with the ball not coming onto the bat.

Tom Alsop, cutting at a delivery that was too straight and full for the purpose, fell cheaply, Haines was bowled by what appeared to be a slower delivery from Zain-ul-Hassan and Tom Clark, playing too soon, was caught off a leading edge. Cheteshwar Pujara, who averaged of 89 in this competition last year, and who already has two centuries in the current campaign, normally scores steadily while others bat around him. But now, needing to be more aggressive, he stepped down the pitch and crashed the ball straight and was caught and bowled for 27. At 142 for five in the 32nd over the Sussex innings had reached its low point before Coles, who struck five fours, and Hudson-Prentice, who hit three fours and two sixes, pulled the innings round. But it never looked likely to be enough against a strong Glamorgan batting side.