Sussex 278-3 (81.5 overs)
Warwickshire 415 (107.5 overs)
Sussex trails Warwickshire by 137 runs with seven wickets remaining
Daniel Hughes made a season’s best 151 before departing at the second day as Sussex made a strong response to Warwickshire’s 415 in the Rothesay County Championship.
The 36-year-old Australian left-hander was lbw to off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli off the penultimate delivery of the second day as Sussex reached 278-3.
Hughes had shared an opening partnership of 98 with Tom Haines and then added 142 with James Coles as the combination of a flat pitch, a Kookaburra ball doing little off the straight and the pitiless Hove heat made it a tough day for Warwickshire’s attack.
Rocchiccioli toiled away manfully, bowling unchanged for two sessions apart from a solitary over, from the sea end to pick up all three Sussex wickets for 94 from 35 overs.
Both Hughes and Coles’s scoring options were limited after tea when Warwickshire skipper Alex Davies employed as many as eight leg-side fielders as he rotated his seamers while Rocchiccioli wheeled away at the other end.
It looked like being a fruitless session for the Bears until Rocchiccioli, armed with the new ball, skidded a quicker delivery on to Hughes’s pads for a belated but deserved reward. Hughes’s 151 came off 260 deliveries with 26 fours.
Hughes had only previously passed fifty three times this season although his 60 against Durham last week hinted at a return to form.
Here, the majority of his boundaries came through his strong areas between extra cover and mid-off. It was an impressive physical effort too, given the scorching temperatures.
Warwickshire wicketkeeper Kai Smith was convinced that Haines had edged a ball from Rocchiccioli in his fourth over but the umpire was unmoved and in his next over Haines lofted Rocchiccioli for six, necessitating a ball change.
It did the trick as Rocchiccioli got enough grip to knock back Haines’s off stump and end an opening stand of 98 in 22 overs.
Rocchiccioli had a second wicket in the 32nd over when the out-of-form Tom Clark, who’d faced 28 balls for his five, was held low down at slip pushing forward by Tom Latham.
Clark made 140 when the teams met at Edgbaston in April but his last 11 Championship innings have yielded a meagre 79 runs.
Sussex scored 140 in the afternoon session with Hughes reaching his 10th first-class hundred by taking two boundaries in three balls off Ethan Bamber.
The runs dried up after tea, though, as Warwickshire went on the offensive and Rocchiccioli plugged away trying to force a mistake.
Even Coles, who likes to get on with it, was becalmed for long spells as 78 were scored in the final session. Coles was still there at the close, though, having passed fifty for the fifth time this season just before stumps.
Earlier, Warwickshire added a further 43 runs from their final three wickets in just under an hour.
Ollie Robinson struck in the second over of the day when he found Smith’s inside edge – and Gurinder Sandhu claimed his third wicket of the innings when he had Chris Rushworth caught behind. Jack Carson trapped Bamber in front with a ball which kept a shade low to end the innings.
Hughes said: “It was obviously disappointing to get out to the last ball of the day but I was really pleased with how it went.
“I wasn’t surprised when Corey Rocchiccioli took the new ball and it did the trick. He beat me on the inside when I played for turn.
“When you get in against the Kookaburra ball you have to make the most of it and make yourself hard to get out.
“I did some work on a couple of technical things with (batting coach) Grant Flower and it was nice that it paid off.
“The pitch is quite slow so we’ve got some work to do tomorrow but we’ve got some good players in the sheds who can hopefully help us push on.”
Bamber said: “That last session was a fantastic template for us and showed the character we’ve got in the team. For Corey to basically bowl unchanged for two sessions was exceptional.
“He got a five-for on debut last week and is an exceptional person in the dressing room and he bowled phenomenally again today. He is a great asset for us to have.”
