County Championship: Late drama leaves Sussex and Durham evenly poised

Matthew Kuhnemann took two of the five wickets to fall so far in Sussex's second innings

The dramatic dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara for 35 left Sussex's County Championship match against Durham hanging in the balance going into the final day.

Pujara was superbly caught by a leaping Michael Jones at mid-wicket, pulling at Ben Raine's medium pace, and at stumps Sussex were a suddenly nervy 172 for five - still 59 runs away from their victory target of 231.

Tom Haines, Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Henry Crocombe had earlier been the central figures for Sussex as they surged towards an opening Division Two win after dominating Durham with both ball and bat on an absorbing third day at Hove.

Sussex bowled Durham out for 189 in their second innings, with 21-year-old Crocombe claiming a career-best four for 47 and all-rounder Hudson-Prentice taking four for 27, his best figures for Sussex, before opener Haines led the way in the victory chase with 64 from 69 balls.

Hudson-Prentice was only playing after being drafted in overnight as a concussion substitute for George Garton, who had top-edged a ball into his helmet while batting on day two and was withdrawn from the game as a precaution.

The day's events, overall, still threaten to complete a stunning turnaround in a match that began on Thursday with Durham racing to 142 for no wicket after being put in to bat and ultimately reaching 352 for seven by stumps from the 70 overs possible following a morning lost to rain.

But Sussex, under new four-day captain Pujara, fought their way back into the game - not least through Pujara's own first innings 115 - and Haines' assured stroke play in late afternoon sunshine put pitch conditions into perspective despite the 16 wickets that fell on day three.

Durham's third-innings collapse came against impressively self-disciplined bowling from Sussex's four seamers, but was perhaps also a result of uncertainty in how to build on their modest halfway lead. Only Ollie Robinson from Durham's top order, including three sixes in a 92-ball 58, seemed clear in his method as he successfully balanced aggression with a secure defensive technique.

Haines hit 10 fours in a sparkling knock, plus a disdainful lofted straight six from down the pitch against Australian Test left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann.

Kuhnemann, though, broke a 77-run second-wicket stand by having Tom Alsop caught at slip off a top-edged reverse-paddle for 29 and later had Tom Clark lbw for 22 just before Pujara's dismissal by Raine after the Indian Test star seemed to be guiding Sussex home after Haines had top-edged a pull at Brydon Carse.

That was from Carse's second ball of his second spell, and the big fast bowler had struck too with his very first delivery, 79 runs earlier, when Ali Orr obligingly flipped a short one to long leg on 11.

Sussex's last-wicket pair added just three more runs at the start of the day before their first innings ended at 335, a deficit of 41. But Nathan McAndrew, who took five for 85 in Durham's first innings, was rightly given the new ball second time around and set the tone beautifully for what was to come with a testing and accurate opening burst of 6-3-7-0 in which he could easily have had a couple of wickets.

Left-armer Sean Hunt, also finding good rhythm up the slope from the Sea End, made the initial breakthrough when Jones' unconvincing 30-ball stay ended with a nick through to keeper Oli Carter on four, but Durham's slide really began when Crocombe came into the attack.

Alex Lees shaped to drive Crocombe's third delivery, from around the wicket, inside-edging behind on 17 as he realised the ball was not quite there for the shot and, at the start of his next over, Crocombe induced a leaden-footed Ben McKinney to edge weakly to Carter.

And 42 for three soon became 63 for five when David Bedingham, having moved fluently to 15, drove at a Hudson-Prentice leg-cutter and was well-held chest-high by Alsop at first slip, going to his left, while Graham Clark was caught by Carter after poking at the first ball of Crocombe's fifth over.

McAndrew, re-introduced for the final over of the morning, continued his second spell following the interval and pinned Jonathan Bushnell leg-before for 16 soon after Robinson had pulled him powerfully into the pavilion for the first of his sixes.

The best partnership of the innings then saw Robinson and Carse add 71 in 16 overs for the seventh wicket, with keeper-batsman Robinson impressing as he off-drove McAndrew for four before then hooking and pulling Crocombe for two more sixes when the right-armer was given a stint down the Hove slope.

Carse also produced some excellent strokes and Robinson had not long gone to his half-century with a cover-driven four off Jack Carson's off spin when he slumped down on his haunches aghast after steering Hudson-Prentice off the face of the bat to gully where Clark took a sharp chance with aplomb.

Hudson-Prentice then had Carse taken behind - Carter's fifth catch - for 36 and although Raine hit three fours in one Carson over in a bright unbeaten 21, the innings was quickly wrapped up as Matt Potts lifted Hudson-Prentice to mid off on four and last man Kuhnemann departed for a duck, limply steering Crocombe to gully.

Match report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.