County Championship: Jack Leaning and Zak Crawley help Kent frustrate Sussex

Jack Leaning scored his second half-century of the match against Sussex and his third of the season

Another dogged half-century from Jack Leaning enabled Kent to have the best of a rain-truncated day against Sussex.

Leaning (60 not out) added another 51 runs with Zak Crawley (87) as the pair took their third-wicket stand to 130.

Kent reached stumps at Hove on 220-3 in their second innings to stretch their lead to 109 going into the final day.

Play did not start until 1700 BST but Sussex, missing injured England fast bowler Jofra Archer, claimed only one wicket in the 24 overs possible.

After an on-field show of 'confusion' between Archer and home skipper Ben Brown, Sussex head coach Ian Salisbury late revealed that he did not bowl because of a sore elbow - and that he will not bowl again in the match.

There was a further visible on-field show of annoyance when Sussex felt hard done by not to dismiss Leaning on 57 when their appeal for a catch behind off Ollie Robinson was turned down.

Their mood was worsened near the end of play when Kent's Ollie Robinson fended one to first slip off his Sussex namesake, only for the catch to be dropped by Aaron Thomason.

The only wicket to fall in the session was England Test batsman Crawley, who had moved calmly to within 13 of his first century of the season before he gloved a delivery to a tumbling Thomason at short-leg, attempting a reverse sweep off Jack Carson.

But Leaning and Robinson (11 not out) rode their luck to put Kent in a decent position to avoid defeat on day four.

Sussex head coach Ian Salisbury told BBC Radio Sussex:

"There was some confusion over the state of Jofra's elbow. Ben Brown thought he was going to bowl and there was confusion over that, but obviously his elbow is sore so he couldn't bowl.

"Any other info about his elbow, unfortunately that's the ECB's job to mention that. I can't answer that.

"Ultimately he wants to win games of cricket for Sussex, as does Ben. That's probably why he's disappointed, like any time you can't have one of your premier bowlers. And we're desperate to win this game against one of our local rivals.

"Any time Jof can't bowl, you're going to be frustrated. But that's life. That's sport. People get injured in any sport."

Could Archer bowl on Sunday?

"You'll have to ask the ECB. But if it's sore today, then he's not going to bowl tomorrow."