Picture by John Heald. Sussex captain John Simpson is bowled by the excellent Dom Bess today.
Dom Bess believes Yorkshire bowled “pretty well” on day three against Sussex at Hove today but admitted his frustration at what he felt was a key missed opportunity.
Sussex closed another weather-affected day on 232-8 in reply to Yorkshire’s first-innings 194, the match now heading towards a draw.
Bess described the half day’s play – there were 53 overs lost from the allotted 104 – as “attritional”.
Unfortunately, early on, a Tom Alsop edge between first and second slip – Bess and Lyth – went begging off George Hill’s bowling, with the left-hander on 24.
And although he only went on to make 12 more, Bess felt it was somewhat of a tone-setter as Sussex advanced from an overnight 84-4 thanks largely to captain John Simpson’s patient 66.
“I thought if I’d taken the catch at the slip early doors, then we’d have had a bit of a harder ball, we could have challenged them potentially closer to our score,” said the honest all-rounder.
“But credit to John Simpson, I thought he played pretty well.
“They seemed to get partnerships, and when you’ve got an under-par score, you have to take all the chances.
“Regardless, I think we bowled pretty well.
“It was very attritional. The ball went quite soft and, at times, I felt like it was hard to hit off the square.”
Bess was at the forefront of Yorkshire’s hard-working bowling display.
He was excellent for 2-12 from six overs of off-spin, both his wickets coming in the late afternoon.
He bowled both Fynn Hudson-Prentice and key man Simpson with beauties which spun appreciably.
“To be honest, I felt pretty good all year,” he added. “And it’s felt good this game.
“It was nice to get a couple of wickets and break that partnership (52, seventh wicket between Hudson-Prentice and Simpson) and try and do damage limitation as much as possible, with obviously them going past our score.”
