Joe Sarro, Dan Ibrahim help tip scales in Sussex's favour
Leach takes five-for but late flurry of wickets helps visitors' cause at Worcestershire
ECB Reporters' Network
31-Aug-2021
Joe Sarro contributed to a late flurry of wickets • Getty Images
Worcestershire 186 for 7 (Haynes 47, Ibrahim 2-9, Sarro 2-43) trail Sussex 264 (Carson 87, Orr 52, Leach 5-68) by 78 runs
Joe Sarro helped tipped the scales in Sussex's favour during a late flurry of wickets on day two of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Worcestershire at New Road.
The 19-year-old paceman struck in successive overs as three wickets fell for three runs in the space of 14 balls. It reduced Worcestershire to 186 for 7 - still 78 in arrears - and capped off another promising day for the inexperienced Sussex line-up made up of no capped players and an average age of nineteen-and-a-half.
Danial Ibrahim, 17, also impressed with the wickets of Worcestershire's top scorer, Jack Haynes, and veteran opener, Daryl Mitchell.
On a wicket of some variable bounce, batting was never straightforward. Sussex began the day on 254 for 9 with Jack Carson unbeaten on a career-best 81 but he added only six more runs before he went for a drive down the ground and gave Joe Leach his fifth wicket of the innings. The Worcestershire captain finished with 5 for 68 from 22.4 overs - his first five-wicket haul for two years.
Worcestershire openers Mitchell and Jake Libby were given a testing time by Fynn Hudson-Prentice and several edges just failed to go to hand. The opening pair put on 44 in 12 overs before Libby (28) was bowled after attempting to work Hudson-Prentice to leg.
Tom Fell began in impressive fashion with two boundaries in an over from Sarro. But then Mitchell nibbled at a ball from Ibrahim and was caught behind and Fell turned Carson off his legs and was snapped up at short leg.
Worcestershire reached 82 for 3 at lunch and after the resumption both Jack Haynes and Brett D'Oliveira survived chances on 10 and 20 respectively. In between, the fourth-wicket pair played some enterprising strokes with Haynes cover-driving and on-driving Hudson-Prentice for four.
The fluent partnership was worth 76 in only 17 overs and Haynes had moved onto 47 when he was bowled by a delivery from Ibrahim which skidded on and kept low.
After a break for bad light, Sussex seized the initiative with three wickets in three overs - two of them to Sarro before another stoppage. He removed Ed Barnard and D'Oliveira - at second slip and behind respectively - and in between Ben Cox also nicked through to Ollie Carter. The players returned for a further nine balls after yet another hold-up before play was abandoned for the day.