SUSSEX v GLAMORGAN

18th May (4 days) 11:00 LV= Insurance County Championship The 1st Central County Ground, Hove
481 & 1-0
V
123 & 737
Match Drawn
Labuschagne and Smith showdown in Hove

Head Coach Matt Maynard has named a 13-man squad for our LV= County Championship fixture against Sussex.

The Welsh county travel to Hove after an emphatic win against Worcestershire in Cardiff last week.

This fixture is grabbing all the headlines due to a mouth-watering showdown between Australian batting greats Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.

The number one and number three Test batters in the world face off in County cricket for the first time, the last match for both before they join up with the Australian Test squad.

Steve Smith has, so far, scored 13,325 runs in all first-class cricket. Marnus Labuschagne has amassed 9,913, so a further 87 runs for Glamorgan at Hove will see Marnus join Steve in the 10,000-run Club!

Glamorgan will be without Club Captain David Lloyd for this fixture, as the all-rounder picked up a hamstring injury batting against Worcestershire. Kiran Carlson will take the reins in his place.

Andy Gorvin makes his first appearance in the squad this summer, while all-rounder Zain ul Hassan is in line to make his first-class debut for the Welsh County after some impressive outings for the 2nd XI.

Glamorgan head into the fixture still in 4th place in Division Two thanks to their resounding victory last time out, while Sussex currently occupies the second spot in the table.

Both sides will be looking to take some momentum from the last round of Championship fixtures before the start of the Vitality Blast.

View from the camp – Matt Maynard

"We are finding some rhythm in the game now, and that is brilliant to see. The bowling group is firing nicely now.

“As a batting group, we are managing to get runs on the board, so we are very happy. If the weather hadn’t intervened in Yorkshire, we would have won two games.

“We know where the headlines will be this week, but there are still 20 other players on the pitch. However, seeing the best the game has to offer id great for County Cricket as a whole.”

Head-to-head – Sussex vs Glamorgan

Thanks to another outstanding effort last week at Cardiff, Timm van der Gugten has claimed 28 first-class wickets at an average of 18.53 with only Chris Rushworth - formerly at Durham and now with Warwickshire - having claimed more wickets than the Glamorgan bowler, with 30 to his name.

Even though the Welsh county beat Sussex by five wickets at Sophia Gardens in 2022, Hove has been something of a bogey ground for Glamorgan in recent years, Glamorgan have not defeated Sussex at their headquarters in Championship cricket since July 1975, whilst the contest between the two counties at Hove in 2018 saw Glamorgan dismissed for 85 and 88 in a game that ended on day two.

Their batters fared much better in 2019, with Marnus Labuschagne and Nick Selman sharing a Club record second wicket stand of 291 in 75.2 overs in a match which ended in a draw after Marnus had posted what, at the time, was a career-best 182. Glamorgan also drew their Championship contest in 2021 at Hove after Ben Brown, the former Sussex captain, completed an unbeaten hundred, as well as drawing last summer’s game at the ground despite being able to enforce the follow-on.

How to watch

Thanks to our friends at Sussex, a live stream will be in operation, and you can watch on the Glamorgan website via the match centre with commentary from Nick Webb and colleagues.

The match will also be covered on our social media channels, with updates, highlights, and reports throughout the game.

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