Sussex go level with Lancs

Darren Stevens © Getty Images

Sussex moved level on points with Lancashire at the top of the Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division One table despite a Darren Stevens hundred which stalled their impetus at Hove.

Kent’s fourth-wicket pair Stevens (118) and Matthew Walker (87) shared a stand of 188 to shut Sussex out for 46 overs under cloudless skies and on an easy-paced pitch.

But a three-wicket burst from Yasir Arafat accounted for the both batsmen as the visitors were restricted to 295 for six in reply to 399 by stumps on day two.

The mid-match balance still favoured Sussex who were nonetheless made to work hard for their advantage in the absence of Mushtaq Ahmed, the leg-spinner’s sore neck making him unavailable for the first time since he joined the county three years ago.

Stevens’ shot-making was high-class, his off-driving particularly memorable against both spin and pace.

His 50 arrived off only 48 balls - but mindful perhaps of an unhealthy ‘conversion’ rate which has long been an issue, he needed another 94 deliveries to put his ninth first-class hundred in the book.

It was against these same opponents that Stevens made his maiden century, in his Leicestershire days, at Arundel in 1999 when his fluency made a deep impression on a watching Lord Cowdrey.

The passage of time has not brought the weight of runs many thought likely - but neither has it dimmed Stevens’ sureness of timing and placement when he is on song.

Among his victims was young off-spinner Ollie Rayner, who conceded all three of the sixes as well as several of the 15 fours off Stevens’ bat.

Walker moved at a more sedate pace but was there before and after Stevens, who eventually left with a hard stare for umpire Vanburn Holder when adjudged lbw playing across a full ball from Arafat.

It was a deserved dismissal in a pacy 14-over spell after tea which yielded 3-42 from the Pakistani seamer.

Arafat also saw off Dwayne Bravo when the West Indies all-rounder holed out to James Kirtley via a faulty pull - but he was no-balled for hitting Walker a painful blow on the wrist with an accidental high full toss.

The little left-hander was not put off - and although runless in the first six overs of the evening session, he had hit 11 fours from 186 balls by the time he finally nicked one behind off Arafat.

Kent’s comparative well-being was in contrast to their morning struggles, in the hour’s batting they had before lunch once Sussex’s first innings had been finished off one run short of a full complement of bonus points.

It was the loss of lynchpin Michael Yardy, for 134, which left Sussex’s last pair Kirtley and Jason Lewry with just too much to do to chip off the 23 runs still required to reach 400.

But back to their day jobs as new-ball bowlers, Sussex’s tailenders had Kent in immediate trouble.

In an uncanny groundhog moment, Lewry struck with the first ball of the innings - exactly as Amjad Khan had on Thursday - shifting David Fulton, lbw pushing forward.

Kirtley then knocked out Martin van Jaarsveld’s off-stump as the South African got an inside edge on a full-length ball.

Kent could not afford any more pre-lunch losses.

But that is exactly what they got, in self-inflicted circumstances - Rob Key committing to a single as Walker deflected a ball from Lewry into the leg-side and the captain unable to beat Richard Montgomerie’s throw on his belated return to the non-striker’s end.

At that point Sussex could reflect on a highly encouraging session, which they had begun on 355 for eight.

Yardy fell to the 322nd ball he faced - a well-directed short one from Khan which brushed a glove as the left-hander tried to avoid contact.

The number three’s vigil was therefore over after almost seven and a quarter hours, without addition to the boundary count of 13 he mustered on Thursday.

It seemed Kirtley and Lewry would nonetheless bag a fifth batting point until the former went lbw trying to push the single still needed against the spin of Min Patel.