Tom Lammonby leads Somerset's title challenge with unbeaten 74
Tom Lammonby dragged Somerset’s title push back on track with his most authoritative innings of the season on a fluctuating second day against Sussex at Hove.
On a surface that finally began to reward patience, the left-hander batted with calm control for an unbeaten 74 from 143 balls, steering Somerset to 167-2 and a lead of 119, with eight second-innings wickets still in hand.
Lammonby answers the call
Somerset began the day under pressure. They had coughed up a first-innings deficit of 48 after Sussex stretched their total to 250, and their top order has carried scars this summer. Lammonby, averaging 28 coming into the game, walked out knowing this was a day to make a statement.
He did just that. Compact, disciplined and largely untroubled, he left well, drove cleanly and refused to chase wide temptation. By the close he had barely offered a chance, his “chanceless” 74 the bedrock of Somerset’s recovery and, potentially, their wider Championship challenge.
He found an ideal ally in Josh Thomas. The pair added 92 for the first wicket, cashing in as the pitch eased and Sussex’s seamers searched for the same movement that had been available earlier in the match. Hove, briefly, looked a different ground.
Sussex captain Tom Haines shuffled his quicks, looking for a spark. It finally came when Sean Hunt changed ends. Switching to the sea end in the 23rd over, the left-armer dug one in a touch shorter, got extra bounce, and Thomas could only fence at it. Charlie Tear flung himself low at slip and clung on, Thomas gone for a solid contribution in a vital stand.
The pressure eased again. Archie Vaughan joined Lammonby and the pair added 49, keeping the board moving and the deficit shrinking. Sussex needed a moment; Jaydev Unadkat supplied it. Vaughan, looking to drive, dragged an inside edge through to the keeper, and at 141-2 the game still hung in the balance.
Henry Nicholls then arrived to see out the day. Alongside Lammonby, he blunted the last 10 overs without alarm, leaving Somerset in control of the contest and with the chance to bat Sussex out of it on day three—weather permitting.
Sussex squander the platform
Earlier, Sussex had the match in their hands and then let it slip.
At 149-2, with Tom Clark scoring at a run a ball and Somerset’s bowlers searching for answers, the hosts were poised to build a commanding lead. Clark looked in complete control, driving fluently and punishing anything loose. A total far beyond 250 felt inevitable.
Then he gave it away. Clark, on 85, pushed at a length ball from Craig Overton without moving his feet and sent a catch to slip. It was a soft dismissal and it opened the door. Somerset barged straight through.
From that moment, Sussex lost seven wickets for 61 runs in 29 overs. It was a collapse rooted not just in poor shots but in the relentless adjustment of Somerset’s seamers, who pitched the ball that fraction fuller and asked better questions.
James Coles tried to muscle Lewis Gregory into the leg side and only succeeded in inside-edging onto his stumps. Tear, who had batted intelligently for 34 and shared a stand of 92 with Clark for the third wicket, fell to Overton as well, the seamer getting one to swing in and straighten just enough two overs after removing Clark.
Overton, having already taken 4-66 in the innings, returned after lunch to rip out Jack Carson and Henry Crocombe in the space of three deliveries. Debutant Joey Evison never settled; his 18-ball stay included a single boundary before he drove loosely away from his body at Gregory and departed.
Somerset’s catching almost undid that work. Overton himself shelled Tear on 10 and John Simpson on 14 in the slips, and those misses looked increasingly costly as the Sussex wicketkeeper dug in. Migael Pretorius then put Simpson down again on 56 at mid-off, a third reprieve that only added to Somerset’s frustration.
Simpson and Unadkat swing back – briefly
When Hunt fell as the ninth wicket, Sussex still trailed by one. The innings should have ended there. Simpson had other ideas.
Using all his experience, he farmed the strike expertly with last man Unadkat, punishing anything remotely loose and threading the ball through a packed boundary field. His unbeaten 64, his highest score in eight Championship innings, was full of defiance and touch.
Unadkat joined the counter-attack in his own way. He faced few balls but made them count, his only two scoring shots both sailing for six over the leg side. In the process, Sussex not only scrambled up to 250 but also secured a valuable batting bonus point that could carry real weight when the table tightens at the end of the season.
The fun ended when Jack Leach finally trapped Unadkat, the left-hander missing a sweep. Leach’s role was limited with the ball on day two, but he may yet become central if the surface starts to take turn when Sussex begin their final-innings chase.
For now, though, the match belongs to Somerset and to Lammonby, whose return to form has shifted the mood and the mathematics of this contest. The forecast for day three is poor. If the rain stays away long enough, will Sussex be chasing a total to save the game—or one that could yet decide the title race?
