County Championship: Carter ton keeps Sussex afloat against Glamorgan

Oli Carter’s previous best score was 72 in Sussex’s previous match at Leicester

Oli Carter led the way with a career-best 113 not out as Sussex reached 245-7 after an evenly-poised first day against Glamorgan.

Carter, 20, had to work hard for a maiden first-class century on a slow pitch, batting at four, after Glamorgan put the visitors in to bat.

He shared a century stand with Tom Clark (55) for the third wicket.

Andrew Salter (2-65) bowled a marathon 26 over afternoon spell to keep a youthful Sussex side in check.

Keeper Chris Cooke claimed a fine leg-side catch and stumping among his three victims before limping off with what looked like cramp, Colin Ingram taking over the gloves to resume a role from early in his career.

Both sides were looking to rid themselves of any hangover from Friday night shockers in the T20, with Glamorgan fielding a team long on batting and short on bowling resources, while Sussex are still searching for a first Championship win of the season.

They made a poor start after being put in as Tom Alsop fell lbw to Michael Neser for six and the in-form captain Tom Haines, on 10, edged James Weighell's first ball to Cooke.

Carter and Clark looked in very little difficulty in a composed century stand at just under three runs an over, before Clark chipped Salter to mid-on.

New Zealander Tim Seifert, on his Sussex Championship debut, was yorked by Michael Hogan for five and Dan Ibrahim was well caught down leg-side by Cooke off Salter for one.

Delray Rawlins hung around for 21 in a far from typical innings, before being brilliantly stumped by Cooke off David Lloyd.

Carter steered Sussex to their first batting point, but lost another partner to the new ball when Archie Lenham chopped on for seven to Neser (2-39), who was sidelined with Covid for the previous few days.

Home-grown product Carter inched through the nervous 90s before smacking Weighell through the covers for his 12th boundary to reach three figures off 208 balls and crown a mature performance.

Carter and Henry Crocombe (18 not out) took Sussex to within touching distance of a second batting point going into the second day.

Glamorgan's Andrew Salter told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a decent day of graft for us, we'd have liked a couple more (wickets) towards the back end with the new ball, but hopefully we can pick them up in the morning.

"The wicket played quite well, placid at times so it was a question of being patient and building some pressure with the ball.

"There were plenty of overs to bowl and it's always nice to get a rhythm, sometimes you don't want to stop when you're in a groove like that.

"You never know what the game's going to give you (after six matches as stand-in opening bat) so it was great to bowl plenty of overs, and I'll crack on and try to do a decent job batting lower down."

Sussex batter Oli Carter told BBC Sussex Sport:

"I'm delighted with my knock, I hope it puts us in a good position so we can crack on and win the game.

"It was all about being patient since we'd lost two early on, it made it more important for me and Clarky to put on a partnership and it progressed from there.

"It was a tricky pitch, you've got to really wait for it since it's a bit slow in patches, wait for the bad ball to come and rotate (the strike) off the good balls.

"It was nice to be out there with Crocs (Crocombe, for the 100), he helped me a lot staying with me and scoring freely so we're building a good partnership."