Trott leads way for Warwickshire

Warwickshire are in a strong position to claim their third straight win in the County Championship after dominating the day two against Sussex.

Jonathan Trott led the way with 178 and half-centuries from Rikki Clarke and Tim Ambrose further punished a wayward attack as Warwickshire piled up 545 at Hove.

They then took two wickets before the close as Sussex, who need 396 to avoid the follow-on, reached 57 for two at stumps.

Warwickshire lost nightwatchman Chris Wright in the second over of an uninterrupted day when he was yorked by James Anyon but Trott and Ambrose, the former Sussex player, looked relatively untroubled as they added 110 for the seventh wicket.

Trott did much as he pleased as he added a further 46 runs to his overnight 132 and it was a surprise when he fell just before lunch to occasional off-spinner Chris Nash, who tossed the ball up outside off stump and Trott edged to slip on the drive. He batted for just under seven hours, faced 314 balls and hit 27 boundaries.

There was little respite for the suffering Sussex attack during the afternoon session. Ambrose had added 50 with Clarke and moved to 75 when he was taken at slip after Monty Panesar turned one out of the rough, Ambrose having faced 135 deliveries and hit 12 fours.

Warwickshire then demonstrated their enviable batting depth. Last man Jeetan Patel scored a Championship hundred two years ago and both he and Keith Barker gave Clarke great support as the last two wickets added a further 101 runs.

Both struck Panesar for six before Nash took the final two wickets to finish with three for 44 from 14.5 overs. Clarke was left undefeated on 78 from 109 balls with six fours and a six while Warwickshire's total of 545 was the biggest in the Championship so far this season.

Sussex began their reply after tea and initially Nash and Ed Joyce looked untroubled as they negotiated eight overs with the new ball.

Nash then played a loose drive at Barker and Varun Chopra clung on to a difficult chance moving to his right at second slip.

Warwickshire struck again when off-spinner Patel picked up a wicket with his third ball when a quicker delivery pinned Joyce in front of his stumps.

He ended the day with figures of 7-5-2-1 as Luke Wells and Murray Goodwin patiently batted out the remaining 13 overs until stumps.