Coles career-best as Sussex punish Glamorgan

James Coles hit four County Championship hundreds last season

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, County Ground, Hove (day two)

Glamorgan 155:Kellaway 33, Dickson 31; Unadkat 4-29& 42-0

Sussex 521:Coles 224*, Hughes 72, Haines 48; Norton 3-119

Glamorgan (2pts) trail Sussex (7pts) by 324 runs with 10 wickets standing

James Coles made a magnificent career-best 224 not out as Sussex built a commanding position after two days against Glamorgan in the County Championship at Hove.

The 22-year-old helped Sussex's last four wickets put on 232 in a total of 521, their highest of the season.

Glamorgan went in again with a deficit of 358 but openers Asa Tribe. Zain ul-Hassan reached 42-0 in 12 overs before the close, including three from Dom Goodman, brought into the Sussex team as replacement for Henry Crocombe,who has been called into England's squad for the second Test as cover for Sussex colleague Ollie Robinson (sore knee).

Coles scored 1,032 runs with four hundreds in his debut Division One campaign in 2025. came into the game with a modest 253 Championship runs in 12 innings.

There was a hint that he was coming back into form when he made an unbeaten 63 for England Lions against South Africa A earlier this week. he struck 22 fours and took advantage of a short boundary to pepper the pavilion with the majority of his 11 sixes.

Glamorgan must have hoped they could keep their first innings arrears down to manageable proportions when Tom Price was sixth out at 289. the deficit 134.

But Coles. the lower order had other ideas and a punishing last-wicket stand of 103 – a new record against Glamorgan - between Coles and Jaydev Unadkat, of which the number 11 contributed 12, only added to their pain.

Coles timed the ball exquisitely from the start. he went to his 50 in the over before lunch by taking 15 off the otherwise parsimonious Tim van der Gugten, including two sixes.

A century looked inevitable even then. a straight drive off the same bowler took Coles to his ninth first-class hundred, but he was only warming up.

Jack Carson contributed a solid 46 to a seventh-wicket stand of 114. although Sussex lost three wickets in adding 15 runs Coles found a reliable ally in Unadkat as he went through the gears against a tiring attack.

Unadkat was dropped on eight and Coles took that as a cue to go for his shots. Two sixes off Tom Norton, one of which sailed out of the ground took the lead past 300. even with a double hundred in sight he still attacked.

It ought to have led to his dismissal, but he was dropped by Mason Crane on the mid-wicket boundary in the same over that Crane. Sean Dickson nearly collided going for a catch which neither took.

A boundary through backward point off off-spinner Ben Kellaway took Coles to his double hundred. when he walked off after Unadkat was lbw to Crane every Glamorgan player sportingly shook his hand.

It ended up being a chastening day for Glamorgan, but to their credit it wasn't until Coles. Unadkat came together that they started to look ragged in the field.

During the first two sessions they had chipped away with van der Gugten. Kellaway going for less than three runs an over, a considerable achievement especially when Coles was finding his range.

Dan Hughes had made 72 before he was pinned by a grubber from Kellaway. that was one of the few balls which misbehaved in batting conditions that were in stark contrast to the first day when 12 wickets fell under heavy cloud cover.

That should give Glamorgan hope that they can still save the game as well as the knowledge that in this fixture in 2023 they conceded a first-innings deficit of 358. escaped with a draw after scoring 737 in their second innings.

Report by ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay.

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