County Championship: Yorkshire overcome Sussex to stay top

Overlooked by England against India, Tim Bresnan (left) has contributed 30 wickets to Yorkshire's title push

Yorkshire remained top of the County Championship as they defeated Sussex by nine wickets at Scarborough.

A determined performance in the field saw them dismiss the visitors for 230, despite a superb 113 from Luke Wright.

He hit 17 fours and shared a stand of 127 with Steffan Piolet (32) before both fell to seamer Tim Bresnan (3-60).

Yorkshire openers Alex Lees (46) and Adam Lyth (39 not out) shared 88 to make the result a formality as they cruised to 106-1 in 20.1 overs.

New Zealander Kane Williamson, whose first-innings century gave the White Rose county a 125-run lead, struck three successive fours off Matthew Hobden and then collected the winning single in the next over to finish unbeaten on 15.

The victory, Yorkshire's sixth of the season, left them six points clear of Nottinghamshire at the top and 21 ahead of Warwickshire in third.

They next face Lancashire at Old Trafford before what may be a decisive showdown against Notts at Trent Bridge, starting on 9 September.

Wright reached his third Championship century of the summer off 115 balls in the morning session and the dismissal of Piolet, caught at third slip off Steve Patterson, was the home side's sole success before lunch.

The same bowler (2-24) trapped Ben Brown lbw immediately after the restart and when Bresnan removed Wright in similar fashion, Sussex's hopes of surviving for a draw faded.

James Tredwell made 26, but leg-spinner Adil Rashid (2-40) brought the innings to a close and after carefully seeing off the new ball, Yorkshire's batsmen raised the tempo to wrap up the match.

Yorkshire seam bowler Tim Bresnan:

"This was as good a win as they come. It was always going to be a difficult game to get a result from and I thought we played the situation well.

"Sussex had a 100-plus stand, which was always going to happen at some stage, but we went 'bang bang' either side of lunch and got on top.

"We realised we had to win this game to stay top and we have managed it. With the sort of cricket we are playing at the moment I would back us to beat anyone.

Sussex director of cricket Mark Robinson:

"Scarborough is a brilliant ground and a great place and you get a feel how important the festival is for English cricket.

"We came across a team with four nailed-on seamers, while we had only one, and that basically was the difference between the two teams.

"Disappointed as I am that Sussex have not won, I love this place and our boys have embraced the atmosphere. If we had been able to bat for an extra hour we could have saved the game."