Josh Cobb made his surprise substitution count as Northamptonshire stall in pursuit of Sussex tot.
After an accident at home overnight, captain Alex Wakely was withdrawn from the match and taken to hospital for concussion testing. Twelfth man Josh Cobb being called up to active duty, coming in as a concussion substitute. It was a bright start to the day for Northamptonshire, as Luke Wood broke the record Sussex partnership in the third over of the morning, trapping Brown in front for 156. The score passed 400 but Chris Jordan went next, only adding 9 to his overnight score before he edged Overton to stand-in captain Rossington for 166. Sakande and Mir Hamza both went for single figure scores as Northamptonshire bowled the visitors out for 422.
A wicket fell in the tricky 20 minutes left to bat before lunch, Ben Curran edging to third slip to fall for 3. This brought Josh Cobb to the crease, who’s unable to bowl in the match but can bat in place of the injured Wakely. He made the most of the opportunity, combining with Vasconcelos the pair looked fluent and both brought up half centuries in 82 and 83 balls respectively. It took until the last ball before tea to break the partnership of 137, after near identical boundaries driving through cover, Vasconcelos was trapped lbw by Briggs and departed for 83.
Temba Bavuma’s innings was a short one, he found the boundary with a couple of nicely timed leg glances before extra bounce from Mir Hamza found the edge to Jordan at slip. Josh Cobb’s productive innings came to an end on 62, his attempted pull shot taking a top edge down to the fielder at fine leg. From 143/1 Northamptonshire were now 165/4 with Rossington joining Keogh in the middle.
Rossington looked in ominous form in his first game back from injury. Two thumping pull shots and a powerful cover drive taking the keeper-batsman to 13 before his edge narrowly carried to second slip. Luke Procter came out at 7, having opened the batting in his last innings against Lancashire. Procter and Keogh settled things and added 52 for the 6th wicket before Keogh edged the legspin of Wells to first slip for 41.
Loanee Luke Wood was struck in the helmet by a bouncer from Jordan in the last over of the day. After a pause in play for an assessment by club physio Barry Goudriaan he retired hurt. Jamie Overton safely seeing the innings through to stumps, Northamptonshire still trailing by 173 with 4 wickets in hand.
Sussex 422 (Sanderson 3/78, Overton 3/79)
Northamptonshire 242/6 (Vasconcelos 83, Cobb 62)