Robinson hundred helps Sussex rally against Surrey

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Kia Oval (day one) Sussex 358-9d: Carson 105, Robinson 100*, Hudson-Prentice 53; Clark 5-68, Fisher 3-92 Surrey 19-0: Sibley 13*, Burns 6* Bonus Surrey (3 pts) trail Sussex (3 pts) by 339 runs Match scorecard Ollie Robinson hit 100 not out from No 10, his highest score for more than a decade, as Sussex rallied remarkably against Surrey at the Kia Oval to reach 358-9 declared – after Jordan Clark's five-wicket burst before lunch had sent them plunging to 92-7. Robinson, appointed as Sussex's captain for this season's County Championship, was joined by Jack Carson in a memorable ninth-wicket stand of 173 that followed a counter-attacking partnership of 75 in 12 overs between Carson and Fynn Hudson-Prentice. Carson's own contribution to a pulsating opening day was a superb 105 – like Robinson, his second first-class century.

Their stand was a Sussex ninth-wicket record against Surrey, topping the 160 by the legendary KS Ranjitsinhji and Fred Tate at Hastings in 1902, and only five runs short of the county's overall partnership record for that wicket. Robinson completed his hundred with a pulled six over deep mid-wicket, and then promptly declared to leave Surrey's openers facing an awkward ten overs, in which they scored 19 without loss. Hudson-Prentice's 58-ball 53, meanwhile, featuring a six and seven fours, also provided rich entertainment for a crowd of 5,500.

Both Robinson's and Carson's hundreds were greeted by prolonged applause that rang around the ground. Clark had to settle in the end for 5-68, while Matt Fisher finished with 3-92. Sussex, put in, seemed to have weathered the loss of Tom Haines for a second-ball nought, brilliantly caught above his head by Ollie Pope at second slip off Sean Abbott from an edged drive.

Tom Clark and Dan Hughes added 63 for the second wicket, with Clark in particular playing some eye-catching strokes. He was severe on Reece Topley when the left-arm seamer conceded 21 runs from his first two overs, including one stunning straight drive in a sudden rush of fours. But then Surrey's Clark got to work, swinging one back into Hughes' pads in his second over to have him lbw for 22, before taking a further wicket in his next over and two more in his third.