County Championship: Bears openers Will Rhodes & Dom Sibley bat Sussex out of game

Will Rhodes (left) and Dom Sibley have now shared three County Championship century stands this summer

Almost-promoted Warwickshire batted Sussex all but out of the game at Hove as they effectively closed the door on the third-placed outsiders going up.

On a day when Kent sealed one of the pair of Division Two promotion places, Sussex duo Ben Brown (99) and David Wiese (93) extended their sixth-wicket stand to 196 as the hosts reached 343.

After building a first-innings lead of 97, the Bears openers closed on 141-0.

Will Rhodes and Dom Sibley put together their third century stand of 2018.

Rhodes, within reach of 1,000 Championship runs this season after his second half-century of the match, has made 76 not out. Sibley, on 43 not out, was within seven runs of going past 50 for the fourth time in 2018 before the early close due to bad light.

Warwickshire have simply to avoid defeat on the last day at Hove to ensure that they go up alongside Kent. A draw would leave them level on points with Kent when the two teams meet in the final game of the season at Edgbaston next week.

Sussex had Brown and Wiese to thank for getting so close to the Bears' first-innings total of 440. But, after sharing 38 overs at the crease together, Wiese was bowled by Chris Wright, then Sussex skipper Brown too was denied a century when, pushing forward to Warwickshire captain Jeetan Patel, he edged to Jonathan Trott low down at slip.

Wicketkeeper Brown did have the consolation of not only reaching 1,000 first-class runs for the campaign, but also surpassing his previous season's best of 1,031, set in 2015.

Sussex captain Ben Brown:

"It's a crazy game we play for a living. I played really well and yet fell flat at the end, which was frustrating. I got a good ball from Jeetan Patel.

"David Wiese has been excellent with bat and ball. By his own admission, he struggled a bit last season. But he's adapted to English conditions this year.

"The pitch hasn't really played as we would have liked. It's not doing an awful lot. We knew we had to win this game so we've got some hard work to do.

"I don't think Warwickshire will do us any favours. They might set us 400 in the last session. We've played good cricket all year, but promotion has probably slipped away from us now."

Warwickshire batsman Will Rhodes told BBC WM:

"The bowlers were excellent in the morning and then it was nice for Sibs to score some runs at the end.

"We got off to a flyer and it felt good to bring up the hundred stand.

"It's nice to be playing some consistent cricket in this format. It's been a breath of fresh air.

"I've not always played at the top of the order and it's a tough challenge."