Luke Wells and Murray Goodwin each compiled unbeaten centuries as Yorkshire’s decision to put Sussex in on the first day of their LV= County Championship Division One tussle at the PROBIZ County Ground badly backfired.
Wells enhanced his reputation as one of the best young batsmen in the country by batting through the day to reach 143 not out - his third hundred in only his eighth championship game - while Goodwin had 108 to his name at stumps as Sussex closed on 295 for two.
Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale probably felt a pitch with an even covering of grass would assist his seam attack and Ajmal Shahzad, who is one of the contenders to replace James Anderson in England’s squad should the Lancashire paceman be ruled out of the Lord’s Test, did take the scalp of the in-form Chris Nash in the ninth over with one which nipped back.
Wells was only opening because Nash’s regular partner Ed Joyce is playing for Ireland.
Joyce is due back in time for the third day and his nominated substitute, Joe Gatting, struggled to take his chance.
Gatting failed to score off 40 of the 44 balls he faced before he drove loosely at Steven Patterson and was well caught by the diving Joe Sayers at cover, although that was as good as it got for Yorkshire.
Wells, briefly becalmed before lunch, brought up his fifty with a cover-driven boundary off Patterson and during the afternoon session he and Goodwin made serene progress.
Wells had one alarm on 79 when he was knocked off his feet by Ryan Sidebottom’s yorker but umpire Richard Kettleborough - recently promoted to the ICC’s elite panel - adjudged the ball was sliding down the leg side.
The 20-year-old left-hander reached his century off 198 balls with successive fours when leg-spinner Adil Rashid obligingly dropped short. In total he faced 286 deliveries and found the boundary on 23 occasions.
Goodwin lost little in comparison to his partner although he also had one moment of good fortune, on 49, when he edged between the two slips off Patterson.
Otherwise Sussex’s vice-captain looked in total control, taking every opportunity to play his favoured back-foot shots whenever the bowlers dropped short.
He reached his 46th hundred for the county, in 217 balls, with his 13th four in the final over of the day and so far the third-wicket pair have added 217 in 71 overs.
Sussex are giving championship debutants to two South Africans. Left-armer Wayne Parnell only arrived at 6.30am on an overnight flight from Johannesburg to replace Pakistan’s Rana Naved-ul-Hasan as overseas player, while all-rounder Kirk Wernars, who qualifies because of his Dutch passport, was also included.
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