India’s top order batter Cheteshwar Pujara registered his first duck of the County Championship Divison Two 2023. The Sussex captain who has been in fine form on England soil was trapped in front of the wicket by Australian pacer Michael Neser at County Ground, Hove. On the other hand, Australian fans had a reason to rejoice as their former skipper Steve Smith scored his first fifty of the season under Pujara’s captaincy.
In the 16th over of Sussex's innings, Neser bowled an in-swinger that missed Pujara's bat and hit him on the front pad. He got out for an 11-ball duck. However, Neser is not the part of Australia’s World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final squad.
Smith finally fires
Smith during his short preparatory stint for Sussex, he had registered scores of 30 and 3 in first two games. In the third and final game of his short stint, he scored 89 runs from 183 balls including 10 fours and one six. The 33-year-old shared a 143-run partnership for the fourth wicket with James Coles who went on to score 138.
Smith missed scoring his maiden century for Sussex. For the third time in a row, Smith got out lbw. Neser trapped him in front of the wickets similar to how he dismissed Pujara. As Smith’s lbw problem persists, it may play on Indian bowlers’ find as the go-to form of dismissal to plan for.
Coles' 138-run knock followed by FJ Hudson-Prentice's fiery 64-ball 73 helped Sussex post 481 in their first innings and take a massive 358-run lead.
Earlier, on Day 1, Pujara won the toss and opted to field first. In-form Ollie Robinson bagged a four-fer whereas Aristides Karvelas took three wickets. Haines took a couple of wickets and Hudson-Prentice took a wicket as well. Only four Glamorgan batters managed to score in double digits as they were bundled out for 123 from 37.4 overs.
Their second innings got off to a good start with openers Zain-ul-Hassan and Edward Byrom sharing a 91-run partnership. Jack Carson broke the partnership by getting Hassan (43) stumped whereas Robinson ended Byrom's stay at the crease. Byrom scored 57 runs from 67 deliveries including seven fours and three sixes. Glamorgan depend on Marnus Labuschagne to avoid an innings defeat.
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