Ollie Carter so nearly unstoppable as Gloucestershire sneak home in late thriller

Rookie batter rallies Sussex’s tail to turn a rout in an agonising three-run loss

Gloucestershire 218 for 8 (Taylor 52) beat Sussex 214 (Brown 63, Carter 59, Smith 3-28) by three runs

Gloucestershire kept alive their Royal London Cup chances with their second win in four matches when they beat Sussex by three runs in a thrilling match at the 1st Central County Ground. Sussex, though, without a win in five games, saw their chances fade away.

When Carter was out, yorked by Warner, 15 runs were still needed but 17-year-old Lenham and last man Henry Crocombe kept Sussex alive with six needed off two overs. Then Lenham was run out by Tom Lace’s fine throw going for a second run off the fifth ball of the penultimate over. If they had settled for one Lenham would have needed to score just four off the last over.

Taylor left it late to show his clean-hitting skills as he reached his first 50 of the summer off 60 deliveries, with three fours and a six. Scott made 38 off 28 balls, with two fours and a six.

The most fluent Gloucestershire batting came from their opener Ben Charlesworth, who hit seven fours in an innings full of fluent drives that looked destined to produce a major score.

At 71 for 3 from 17 overs there was a 70-minute rain break which resulted in the match being turned into a 42-over affair. The Gloucestershire batsmen were expected to increase the tempo when play resumed but they were strangled by the trio of Sussex spinners, Beer, Lenham and James Coles. The very consistent Beer was exceptional with figures of 2-30 from nine overs.