Peeved Prior Blows Big Chance As Ramprakash Steals the Limelight

If the rain-ruined first day cost this match most of its intensity, there was the pitch-side presence of the England selector Geoff Miller to provoke a little more zeal from the players. One man especially keen to make an impression was Matt Prior, who was 16 not out at the start of the day.

There has been talk recently of Prior giving up wicketkeeping to concentrate on making his case for England selection as a batsman. The 51 he reached yesterday was his fifth consecutive half-century, and when he was caught at slip after top-edging a pull shot he reacted in furious fashion - crashing his bat into a chair and slamming the dressing room door.

His fellow member of the England fringe, Luke Wright, replaced him and made an even worse impression. With Sussex 373 for seven, the situation demanded quick hitting, a perfect set-up for Wright. Instead he retreated into defence, and was out-paced by Robin Martin-Jenkins at the other end. After lunch Wright was caught at mid-off for 20, trying to hit the ball over the top to the boundary rope.

Martin-Jenkins pushed on past fifty and was left not out after Ollie Rayner was caught behind and Jason Lewry lumped his second ball straight into the clutches of mid-off. Between them Prior and Martin-Jenkins had pushed the score to 475, but the pace at which they did so suggested that their captain Chris Adams was not thinking of forcing a result. With his match-winning bowler Mushtaq Ahmed out injured, Sussex's strategy was a conservative one. Martin-Jenkins followed his 90-minute stint at the crease by bowling an eight-over opening spell for just 21 runs, removing Jon Batty lbw for 17.

He roused another vociferous lbw appeal against Mark Ramprakash but was denied. Ramprakash began cautiously, probably more mindful that he needs two tons to complete his hundred hundreds than of Miller's presence. Having scored just one single in his first nine overs, he settled after tea and moved on past fifty in fluid fashion. James Benning struck a boisterous 68 before he too was trapped lbw by Martin-Jenkins. That left Mark Butcher to bat out the day with Ramprakash, whose unbeaten 66 left him within reach of his 99th first-class century. With little chance of a result, that prospect may be the main attraction at Hove today.