Sussex v Durham: Luke Wright and Ben Brown hit unbeaten tons

Luke Wright (183 not out) and Ben Brown (152 not out) shared a club-record sixth-wicket stand to lead Sussex to 441-5 on day one against Durham.

Four wickets fell in the morning, and when Chris Rushworth snared Matt Machan with the third ball of the afternoon, Durham were well in command.

Wright and Brown rallied, but could have gone for 83 and 47 respectively.

Michael Richardson and Phil Mustard dropped catches, allowing the pair to go on and secure five batting points.

In so doing, sometime England all-rounder Wright moved to within four of his career-best first-class score, while wicketkeeper Brown passed his.

Richardson's lapse at deep midwicket off Scott Borthwick, and Mustard's failure to gather when Brown edged Rushworth behind were costly mistakes for the defending champions, who are still searching for their first win of the season.

Earlier, when Machan became Mustard's third victim, Sussex were on 115-5, but from that point, Durham had to do without frontline seamer Graham Onions, who limped off having bowled just eight overs.

And Sussex's numbers six and seven made merry against the rest of Durham's attack despite Paul Collingwood trying eight different bowlers to try and separate them.

England spin bowling hopeful Borthwick conceded 55 from 10 overs as Wright adopted his usual swashbuckling approach, crashing 27 boundaries, while Brown found the rope 18 times to easily surpass his previous best of 112.

BBC Newcastle's Martin Emmerson:

"Three balls after lunch Sussex were in a mess on 115-5 and dreams of a batting point were just that, but they closed the day on 441-5 as records tumbled.

"The sixth-wicket partnership from Brown and Wright stands at 326 and beats a club record of 255 which had stood since 1930.

"They had some luck as Graham Onions couldn't bowl after lunch because of a back injury and Brown's career-best score may not have happened if Phil Mustard had held onto an edge from Chris Rushworth when he was on 47.

"And Wright, who is now five runs away from a career-best, was downed in the deep on 80 by Michael Richardson who dropped a simple chance off Scott Borthwick's bowling."

Match scorecard