Sussex in control at Riverside

Sussex grabbed the initiative on the first day of their Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash with Durham at the Emirates Riverside.

Captaining Sussex for the first time, Luke Wells led from the front with his third century of the season, following his 258 against Durham at Hove in May by making 122 in a total of 346.

Durham replied with 8-1 as Keaton Jennings’ miserable run continued when he was lbw to Ollie Robinson off the last ball of the day.

Durham coach Jon Lewis said: “With a 10.30 start in September, there’s always enough in the pitch here to justify bowling first and we bowled well.

“We persevered and got the rewards at times when we weren’t playing our best cricket. But any time you score 340 on the first day here it’s a good score.”

Wells’ desire to bat on a sunny morning was vindicated as he chose to toss and was obligingly put in by Paul Collingwood.

Wells shrugged off the first-ball dismissal of Harry Finch to share a secondwicket partnership of 186 with Stiaan van Zyl (92).

There was much playing and missing as the ball nipped around in the first hour, with Chris Rushworth (4-64) and Graham Onions (2-58) well supported by the pacy Brydon Carse in only his second appearance of the season.

Jennings picked up 3-37, including strangling Wells down the leg side with an innocuous ball.

The edges which eluded Durham arrived when the second new ball was taken and the last five wickets went down for 18 runs in 6.3 overs. Wells said: “It was very pleasing to score a hundred and to reach 1,000 for the first time.”