Hundreds for Jordan Cox, Matt Critchley strengthen Essex grip

Hundreds by Jordan Cox and Matt Critchley strengthened Essex's position on the second day against Sussex at Hove.

Cox made 132 and Critchley 123 as Essex reached 475 for 9 before bad light and rain took 28 overs off the day's allocation after tea.

Sussex haven't lost a home game in the Rothesay County Championship since May 2022 but will be hard pressed to maintain that record after Essex stretched their lead to 271.

That was largely down to Cox and Critchley, who put on 184 in 43 overs in the first half of the day.

Cox made 139 not out last week against Hampshire in the Vitality Blast and showed similar form against the red ball here, hitting 23 fours in his tenth first-class century - the second fifty of which came off 53 balls.

Sussex's seam attack struggled in the absence of the rested Ollie Robinson, and with the Kookaburra ball offering little assistance skipper John Simpson soon adopted a containment strategy by rotating his attack in short spells in search of a breakthrough.

But with a temptingly short boundary on the pavilion side it was hard to contain Cox and Critchley, who offered one half-chance on 27 when Gurinder Sandhu got one hand on the ball at long on but couldn't cling onto a very difficult opportunity.

Cox reached his century by reverse-sweeping Jack Carson to the boundary as 149 runs came before lunch. Sussex desperately needed to break through with the second new ball and they did so when it was five overs old. Cox launched into a full-blooded drive at Sandhu and second slip James Coles parried the edge into the air and Tom Alsop dived full length at first slip to take the catch.

Critchley also lodged his tenth first-class hundred of his career, which he reached in the 89th over when he ran a delivery from Ari Karvelas down to third. As well as 12 fours he also hit five leg-side sixes in 175 balls.

He departed after a smart piece of work by Fynn Hudson-Prentice at mid-on who ran him out with a direct hit after Critchley had been called through for a quick single by Michael Pepper.

When Noah Thain had his middle stump plucked out of the ground by Sandhu with the next ball there was brief respite for Sussex.

Rain and thunderstorms arrived at tea and when the players returned at 5.50pm Pepper (44) got a thin edge to the fourth ball after the resumption from Hudson-Prentice, who then had Khaleel Ahmed caught on the boundary before bad light forced an early close with Essex in control.