Sussex coach frustrated again after Glamorgan score highest ever first-class second innings score in England

Glamorgan turned a first innings deficit of 358 to a lead of 379 against a weakened Sussex side with Australia’s Michael Neser becoming the third century maker of the innings, following Marnus Labuschagne and Kiran Carlson. By the time the players finally shook hands the match was as dead as the parrot of Monty Python fame. Both teams remain unbeaten after six matches.

Paul Farbrace, Sussex head coach, said: “Frustrating is the most correct word for the way I feel. It sums us up, really. I think we’ve made really good progress. In the six championship games we’ve played we’ve done well. We are getting our bonus points for bowling a team out once, but we’re not capable of doing it twice, and that’s an area we’ve got to improve on.

"Instead of finishing this little period of championship games with one win in six I think we should be finishing it with at least three wins. But we’ve not been good enough to do that. We’ve got to bowl better and be more consistent with our bowling to give ourselves a chance of winning games.

“We’ve got plans. We’ve got an opportunity to do something, with Puj [Chet Pujara] going off to play in the World Test Championship and then to the West Indies with India. So with the four championship games in June and July we have the opportunity to bring another overseas player in, which we’re taking the opportunity to do. And I hope we can announce that in the next week. Suffice to say it’s a bowler and not a batsman.

"I think Glamorgan played really well here. Labuschagne played outstandingly well. Carlson did as well. But we dropped Carlson on three. Had we taken that opportunity we would have been in a good position. It could have been a very different game. Fair play to them, they’ve got some very good players. I don’t think it was a 123 all out pitch. But we bowled and caught really well in that first spell and then they batted very well in their second innings, so good luck to them.

"I think September could be a very interesting month in Division Two. Today we weren’t able to contain the boundaries. We didn’t get enough balls in the right area. I don’t think the pitch is as flat as some people say. We just didn’t get the ball in the right place.”

At the start of play at the 1st Central County Ground the game was finely balanced, with Glamorgan – on 499 for five – leading by 141, with captain Kiran Carlson 187 not out and Chris Cooke unbeaten on 12.

Carlson achieved his career best when he reached 192, but he did not add to it. In the seventh over of the morning he drove at Ari Karvelas and gave the bowler a simple return catch. In a deeply impressive innings – despite giving tough chances at three and 21 – Carlson had faced 278 balls and hit 18 fours and two sixes as he reshaped the match.

That made it 510 for six. Sussex, though, bowled too many four balls to maintain the pressure on Glamorgan’s lower order. In mitigation, though, they were handicapped by the absence of the injured Ollie Robinson, who was seen on the ground on crutches and wearing a protective boot prior to the scan on his sore left ankle on Monday. The pitch also remained in good condition, even though the occasional delivery kept low. Bizarrely, though, Sussex didn’t take the new ball when it was available at 160 overs just before lunch, preferring to toss the old ball to the part-time leg-spinner Steve Smith. Then, another part-time spinner, James Coles, was given the new ball. At lunch Glamorgan were 603 for seven after 163 overs, a lead of 245, and the game already had the whiff of a draw about it.

Sussex were being led by their vice- captain Tom Alsop, with captain Chet Pujara off the field with a stiff neck. Their interest in winning the match received another fillip at 573 when they took the seventh Glamorgan wicket. Chris Cooke received a leg-stump half-volley from Tom Haines, which he thrashed straight into the hands of Ali Orr at midwicket. Shortly afterwards, Glamorgan reached their highest second innings score, beating the 577-4 they made against Gloucestershire at Newport in 1939, a match in which Wally Hammond made 302.

Glamorgan lost their eighth wicket at 623 when Timm van der Gugten, hooking at a short delivery from the impressive Karvelas and edged it to Oli Carter behind the stumps. But there was still more pain for the nine Sussex bowlers – including the lesser spotted Alsop and Orr.

All-rounder Neser, vying for a place in Australia’s Test team, scored his first century in Glamorgan colours and he reached three figures when he smashed a delivery from his compatriot Smith out of the ground for six.

James Harris is also one of the most accomplished No 10s in the game, with 18 fifties and an average of over 22. Sussex finally took the ninth wicket when Harris pulled a long hop from Smith to deep midwicket where substitute fielder Sean Hunt took a remarkable catch, jumping up to palm the ball in the air, going over the rope but then stepping back inside it to complete the catch. After that last man Jamie McIlroy had time to complete a career best 11 not out. A late tea was taken with Glamorgan 730 for nine and, finally, Smith ended the innings when he bowled Neser for 123.