Matt Prior leads Sussex to victory over Hampshire
Last updated on .From the section Counties
| LV= County Championship - Division One, Hove |
| Sussex 240 & 235-5 beat Hampshire 206 & 266 by five wickets |
| Sussex 20pts, Hampshire 4pts |
| Match scorecard |
England wicketkeeper Matt Prior scored an unbeaten 97 as Sussex beat Hampshire by five wickets at Hove.
Prior hit 12 boundaries in his three-hour stay at the crease as the hosts reached their victory target on 235-5.
Sussex resumed on 82-3, Luke Wells fell for 34 to Dominic Cork (2-52), while Andy Hogg (25) became a third wicket of the innings for Danny Briggs (3-71).
But Prior and Ollie Rayner (22 not out) saw Sussex home to claim their fourth Championship victory of the season.
It lifts them to fourth in the Division One table, 59 points behind leaders Durham with a game in hand.
Sussex lost Wells in the fifth over of the day when Cork had him caught at first slip, but the home side added 102 in the morning session to be 184-4 at lunch.
An over before the interval, South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir was removed from the Hampshire attack by umpire David Millns, after two previous warnings for running on the pitch.
Prior and Hodd put on 81 for the fifth wicket before the latter was bowled by Briggs.
The England wicketkeeper, who will face India in the first Test next week, then added an unbroken 49 with Rayner, to impose a fifth Championship defeat on Hampshire in eight matches.
POST-MATCH VIEWS
Hampshire skipper Dominic Cork told BBC Radio Solent:
"We didn't bowl as well as we could've done and as a side we took our foot off the pedal at the wrong time.
"The wicket didn't improve but there was enough for our spinners to produce a result. I think we can look at the game from day one and it wasn't a 206 all out wicket and to be fair you've got to finish side's off.
"We had two spinners and three seamers and on our day we can bowl people out - so we can't make any excuses. We just didn't bowl well enough so you've got to wake up and produce a better performance than that."
