Critchley, Harmer share six as Essex inflict rare Hove defeat on Sussex

Essex needed just 25 minutes to secure only their second victory of the season in the Rothesay County Championship when they beat Sussex by an innings and 39 runs at Hove.

James Coles completed his third successive Championship hundred, but Sussex were bowled out for 261 in their second innings and suffered their first Championship defeat at Hove since May 2022.

"I think that was our most complete performance of the season," Essex skipper, Tom Westley, said. "At a crunch time, with where we are in the table, to turn up and play like that is testament to everyone in our changing room: 24 points and a win is massive for the club and hopefully we can take that into the last four games, starting against Warwickshire next week.

"We don't want to make excuses about injuries - we probably haven't played anywhere near our ability through the season and it has been challenging getting our strongest XI at times, so it was nice here to bowl them out for 200 in the first innings and then throughout the game everyone chipped in."

Sussex's cause at the start of the final day was pretty hopeless with 55 still needed to make Essex bat again and only three wickets in hand. But at least Coles, 99 not out overnight, was able to follow up centuries against Durham and Warwickshire by reaching his seventh first-class hundred, when he cut the fourth ball of the first over of the day from Matt Critchley to the boundary.

Coles was ninth out for 108, when he slog-swept Simon Harmer and top-edged to Jamie Porter at backward square leg. He'd faced 214 balls, hitting 14 fours and a six.

Harmer had made the breakthrough in the second over when Ari Karvelas tickled a ball down the leg side and was well caught by Michael Pepper.

The end came when Critchley bowled Henry Crocombe for 2. The legspinner finished with 4 for 41 and played his part in an excellent performance by Essex, who will fancy their chances of climbing the table in the remaining four games now they have a full-strength bowling attack available again, having controlled this match from the first session.

Sussex's head coach, Paul Farbrace, said: "It's been hugely disappointing. In the three years I have been here it's comfortably our worst performance in four-day cricket. We never got into the game. We played poor shots with the bat and made poor decisions throughout.

"Apart from James Coles and Tom Alsop in the second innings we haven't batted anywhere as well as we can, there were a lot of soft dismissals and our bowlers haven't done much better to be fair, we didn't play Division One standard cricket which is really frustrating and disappointing.

"It's on me and the rest of the coaching staff as much as the players to reflect and then get into the right mindset for next week's game at Scarborough. Ollie Robinson had an injection in his groin on Wednesday and won't be available until the back end of the One-Day Cup."