Sussex 84-4 (23.1 overs)
Yorkshire 194 (64.1 overs)
Fourteen wickets fell at Hove as two sides needing a victory that would make sure of their first division status produced a compelling day today (Tuesday 16 September).
Sussex were in the ascendancy when they bowled Yorkshire out for 194 after tea but the visitors fought back, reducing the hosts to 84-4 when bad light ended play with 13 overs not bowled.
A draw would probably suit both teams in their battle to avoid an immediate return to the second division but despite no play on the first day there is now every chance of a positive result.
A pitch that had been under cover for the best part of 48 hours offered help to the seamers throughout but there was also some flawed shot selection from both teams.
It looked a good toss to have won when Yorkshire reached 100-2. But Indian left-armer Jaydev Unadkat and Fynn Hudson-Prentice, who took three wickets apiece, and the excellent Ollie Robinson fought back to take six wickets between lunch and tea before off-spinner Jack Carson polished off the innings.
With the floodlights on, Yorkshire hit back with the new ball. Jack White had Dan Hughes smartly taken low at third slip and Tom Haines was lbw to Matt Milnes working to leg.
Milnes struck again in his sixth over thanks to wicketkeeper Johnny Bairstow’s alertness. Hill shelled a catch at slip but the ball landed on Bairstow’s right boot and he scooped it into his gloves as it bounced up.
James Coles (29) shaped up well until he found mid-wicket trying to work Jordan Thompson through square.
The subsequent clatter of wickets had seemed unlikely for much of the morning session as Fin Bean and Adam Lyth accumulated patiently before Bean (27) was caught behind trying to cut Hudson-Prentice’s medium pace.
And in the last over before lunch, left-armer Sean Hunt found Lyth’s inside edge after he’d made 47 and looked to have done the hard work.
Yorkshire then lost five for 15 in 7.2 overs with James Wharton taken low down at slip by Jack Carson to give Robinson a belated reward.
Bairstow was bowled through the gate by Unadkat in the next over and he struck again when Matthew Revis played at a delivery he could comfortably have ignored well outside off stump.
Hill drove loosely and was caught at slip and Dom Bess fell to a leg-side strangle. Jordan Thompson glided the hat-trick ball from Hudson-Prentice effortlessly to the cover rope.
And Sussex would have been in an even stronger position had Coles held a waist-high chance at second slip before Thompson added to his boundary.
Instead, Thompson and his Indian team-mate Mayank Agarwal put the conditions into perspective by adding 52 for the eighth wicket with few alarms.
Agarwal, who made a golden duck on his debut at Taunton last week, had been in since the fall of the first wicket.
Although he struggled with his timing during nearly two and a half hours, he did a solid job while wickets tumbled at the other end until following one from Unadkat which had shaped away.
After tea Carson pinned Thompson (38) with a ball which straightened just enough and the innings ended when White was caught at slip driving loosely at Carson.
Unadkat said: “It was a disciplined bowling performance by our bowling unit and we got our rewards later on. We then lost a couple more wickets than we would have liked but I still feel we are in a good position.
“The wind helped the ball to wobble a bit but it is a good batting track. We haven’t had big partnerships in the last few red-ball games and that has been hurting us.
“We want to do well as a team and I just feel we are one big partnership away from getting the batting unit right back into it. Hopefully, that happens tomorrow and we can get ourselves into a good position.”
Yorkshire opener Adam Lyth said: “It’s not been our best performance with the bat but we bowled really good lines and lengths to get them four down – and if we’d played another half an hour they could have been five or six down.
“Hopefully, it will be overcast tomorrow and we can make some more inroads.
“On the whole it’s a decent wicket. The slowness can sometimes draw you in as batters and it’s not easy to start.
“I have probably only given my wicket away three or four times this season, which I am pleased about, although obviously I wasn’t pleased that it happened today!”
