County Championship: James Vince hits unbeaten fifty for Hampshire

James Vince was out for eight and 12 in last week's draw with Worcestershire

James Vince hit his first Championship fifty of 2015 as Hampshire and Sussex shared an even opening day at Hove.

Sussex slumped to 87-4 before Chris Nash and Luke Wright (59) put on 115.

However, the pair's exit with the score on 202, saw Sussex's last five wickets fall for 49 as they posted 251 all out.

The winless visitors lost openers James Adams, run out for 11, and Sean Terry for 30 but Vince finished the day on 52 not out as they made steady progress in their reply to finish on 116-4.

Sussex had looked set to post a bigger first-innings score before Nash fell to Vince's medium pace for 48 and Wright followed him to the pavilion at the start of the next over.

Thereafter the hosts fell apart with Gareth Berg (4-67) and Jackson Bird (3-69) doing the majority of the damage.

In Hampshire's innings Adams was out backing up after a smart piece of fielding from Steve Magoffin before Terry edged to Nash off Ollie Robinson.

Michael Carberry (14) was caught by Ben Brown off the bowling of Magoffin and Will Smith was out lbw to Robinson for seven but Vince and nightwatchman Danny Briggs saw out the day without any further alarms.

Hampshire paceman Jackson Bird:

"I think we're in a pretty good position now after a tough middle session.

"Luke Wright and Chris Nash took it to us there and we fought our way back into the game pretty nicely.

"The pitch is actually playing okay. A couple of balls from the top end, bowling down the hill, are taking off a little bit. But generally it has played quite well.

"I think it might deteriorate as the game goes on, so hopefully we can put a big score in this innings and get ahead of the game.

Sussex head coach Mark Robinson:

"All our top five batsmen managed to get themselves out, having got a start, but both Wright and Nash batted brilliantly to get us into a good position.

"We're disappointed not to have got a bigger first-innings total but there are a few wickets in this surface and so we can chip away at them tomorrow.

"I think it is also a surface on which the batsmen can play their shots, but the danger with that is when the batters get a bit over-excited."