Bowlers from both sides prosper on first day at Lord's

Sussex dismissed Middlesex for 169, but then struggled themselves with the bat on the first day of this Specsavers County Championship contest at Lord’s.

At stumps Sussex were 120 for 6 in reply, hoping that their strong lower-order will help them towards a first innings lead tomorrow.

There was heavy cloud cover for much of the day and the floodlights were on and off. Both attacks exploited the conditions well, although batsmen on both sides were guilty of some loose shots as well. 

Sussex’s four-man seam attack dovetailed effectively and the wickets were shared around but the most impressive bowling came from Jordan, who took 3 for 17 in his second spell after lunch including Eoin Morgan, who was caught at slip after battling for 90 minutes and facing 77 balls for his six runs. At one stage England’s one-day captain went 35 balls without scoring. 

Jofra Archer finished with 3 for 34, ending the innings when he uprooted Steve Finn’s leg stump the delivery after Holden reached a battling 104-ball half-century off 155 minutes with five fours.

Middlesex never recovered after losing four top-order wickets in the morning session for 30 runs. Ollie Robinson straightened one down the slope to pin Sam Robson (8) and in the next over Steve Eskanzi was beaten for pace by Jofra Archer for a duck.

David Wiese struck with his third ball when Gubbins chased a ball he could have ignored and edged to second slip for 29. The South African then nipped one back off the seam to trap Malan in front for six.

Sussex began their reply positively and openers Luke Wells and Phil Salt had 45 on the board in 7.5 overs. But when Wells (24) was caught by Ethan Barber at mid-off it sparked a collapse which saw five wickets fall for 63 runs.

After a good start that brought him 32 runs in 34 balls Salt was well caught by Dawid Malan running back from cover. Tom Haines (15) edged to second slip, Harry Finch (17)  was bowled by one that kept low and Luke Wright was adjudged leg before to James Harris for a fourth-ball duck.

David Wiese became the sixteenth wicket of the day when he was also lbw to Harris for six to leave Sussex 108 for 5.

Chris Jordan and Ben Brown then saw out the remainder of the day which ended six overs early because of bad light.

Speaking at the close, Jordan said: “It did a lot all day and in the morning when we took four wickets we could have taken even more.

“It swung, there was some seam movement as well and I thought our bowlers exploited the conditions really well. 

“We were pleased with the score we restricted them to but we knew it would be tough for us as well, even though it was a shorter session after tea to bat.

“But we bat all the way down to 11 and we're going to need every run. If we can get a lead we can set the game up but there is a lot of hard work ahead in the morning.”