WARWICKSHIRE took command of their opening day of their County Championship match against Sussex – thanks to three batters making half-centuries.
Sam Hain and Ed Barnard staged a fifth-wicket stand of 151 in 32 overs at Hove.
But Sussex fought fought back with some late wickets before the close.
Hain played particularly well – and reached his half-century for the fifth time in as many Championship innings, before making 87 from 118 deliveries, with three sixes and seven fours.
Barnard offered excellent support with an innings of 66 – but opener Rob Yates missed out on a century by seven runs.
It would have been worse for Sussex but for Henry Crocombe, playing only his second game of the season.
Paceman Crocombe had taken six wickets in the win over Hampshire in May and, here, he took three for 73.
Sussex and Warwickshire started the match without the respective services of Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethell, but with the shared hope that both players might be available for the last two days of the game if not selected by England for the second Test against India at Edgbaston.
The warm weather and the Kookaburra ball helped persuade Warwickshire to bat first, but the cloud cover and the grassy pitch still offered encouragement to the Sussex seamers.
The first session went Warwickshire’s way, the visitors exploiting the short boundary on the pavilion side of the ground as Sussex struggled for penetration.
Yates, who has suffered indifferent form since his century in the opening match of the season, looked in particularly good nick as he shared an opening stand of 79 with captain Alex Davies.
Davies gifted Sussex their first wicket in the 18th over, looking in two minds as he uppercut a short delivery from Crocombe to Fynn Hudson-Prentice on the deep point boundary. However,
Warwickshire reached lunch on a comfortable 113 for one.
The second session, when the sun came out and the ball turned soft, promised further riches for the Bears.
But Warwickshire lost their second wicket on 174 when Tom Latham edged one down the leg side from Crocombe, ending a second-wicket stand of 95.
One run later, in Crocombe’s next over, Hudson-Prentice produced an excellent reflex catch at backward square-leg to dismiss Yates, who had struck 15 fours in his impressive 93 from 142 deliveries.
Six overs later, the challenging Gurinder Sandhu moved one away from Malik, for John Simpson to take the regulation catch behind the stumps, and Sussex were on top with Warwickshire 189-4, though they recovered to 242 for four at tea.
Sussex took the new ball at 308 for four and took three further wickets.
Crocombe – who will make way if Archer joins the game – almost had Hain caught by at mid-on by Ollie Robinson, who finally had the right-hander well caught at leg gully by Tom Haines, before Barnard and Corey Rocchiccioli fell near the end.
Additional reporting, ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay
