County Championship: Durham batters make aggressive start against Sussex

Michael Jones struck 13 fours in his 87 for Durham at Hove

Durham adopted a front-foot approach in their County Championship Division Two match with Sussex after being asked to bat at Hove.

On a placid pitch, they rattled along at five runs an over throughout an absorbing opening day, closing on 352-7 from 70 overs.

Michael Jones (87) and Alex Lees (79) laid the foundations with 142 for the first wicket when play began at 1.30pm after morning rain.

And although Sussex fought back with seven wickets after tea, Durham maintained their aggressive approach, not least when Ollie Robinson, on his debut after his winter move from Kent, and Graham Clark smashed 61 in eight overs for the fifth wicket.

How Sussex could have done with their own Ollie Robinson leading the attack.

Instead, Sean Hunt and Henry Crocombe, who took 33 wickets between them last season, shared the new ball and neither they or the other four bowlers new captain Cheteshwar Pujara had employed by the 22nd over could make much headway against Lees and Jones.

Lees may realise that his only way back into the England Test team will be through a more aggressive approach and he needed only 55 balls to bring up his half-century with a pull off Crocombe that brought him a ninth boundary. Jones was a bit more cautious, taking 90 balls for his fifty.

So it was a surprise when left-armer George Garton, in his first Championship appearance since last May, found a gap between bat and pad to bowl Lees for 79 in the 29th over.

There was little respite for the Sussex attack though, as 6ft 7in Championship debutant Ben McKinney shaped up well.

The 18-year-old left-hander, who captained England Under-19s during the winter, found the boundary with his first three scoring shots before hoisting Hunt over long-on for six to bring up the 200 in the 40th over.

McKinney (35) was foxed by Crocombe's slower ball, which he drove to mid-off to be caught by Pujara, and Durham lost their third wicket when David Bedingham was beaten by a lovely away-swinger from Australian Nathan McAndrew, who was making his Sussex debut.

Jones had provided the ballast in the innings until he mistimed a pull off Crocombe and spliced a catch to Jack Carson, running round from mid-wicket, having hit 13 fours in a shade under four hours.

Sussex tails were up, but Robinson and Graham Clark counter-attacked with some eye-catching blows. Clark got off the mark by hooking Garton for six before depositing him on to the pavilion roof two balls later. Robinson upper-cut Crocombe for six in the next over before Clark took two more sixes off Garton in his next over.

Garton, still finding his way back with the red ball after two injury-ravaged seasons, was withdrawn and it proved a shrewd move by Pujara. Off-spinner Carson did not get a lot of turn, but he did offer control and broke the stand with a low return catch off Robinson's firmly struck on-drive.

No one epitomised Durham's approach more than Clark, who hit six sixes in his 47 before McAndrew, Sussex's most effective seamer, returned down the slope and found enough late inswing to pin him leg before and then had Jonathan Bushnell caught on the boundary to claim his third wicket.

Even Brydon Carse, who has only hit 10 sixes in his first-class career, cleared the ropes before close, one of 10 sixes in the innings so far.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.