Bairstow keeps Yorkshire afloat as weather has final say in Hove

Skipper Jonny Bairstow and James Wharton led Yorkshire to safety as their rain-ruined Championship match with Sussex ended in a draw.

Sussex sensed an unlikely triumph when left-arm spinner James Coles picked up three wickets in nine balls after taking the new ball as Yorkshire lurched to 6 for 3. But in their contrasting styles Bairstow and Wharton averted the crisis, adding 103 in 34 overs. When bad light stopped play at 4pm Bairstow was unbeaten on 64 and Wharton 23 and with no improvement in conditions the players shook hands 20 minutes later.

Sussex take 12 points and Yorkshire 11. Sussex will go into their final game against Worcestershire needing five points to guarantee their first division status but Yorkshire, who are at home to Durham - one of the teams below them - will have to avoid defeat to make sure they stay up.

With 199 overs across the four days lost to rain and bad light - the equivalent to more than two days' play - there was virtually no prospect of a positive result, even more so when morning drizzle delayed the restart until 1pm.

But Sussex picked up a batting point when Ollie Robinson hit two boundaries off offspinner Dom Bess before the hosts, 232 for 8 overnight, were dismissed for 250. The impressive George Hill finished with 4 for 43 from 19.2 overs after taking the final two wickets. Sean Hunt edged a beauty which pitched and left him to wicketkeeper Bairstow, and last man Jaydev Unadkat was taken high to his right at second slip by Bess.

Skipper John Simpson threw the new ball to Coles with immediate results. Adam Lyth chipped his third ball to midwicket and Mayank Agarwal was drawn forward by the sixth which turned enough to take the edge. In his next over, Coles had Fin Bean well held by the diving Oli Carter at short leg, as the ball ballooned up off a combination of pad and bat handle.

It was hard work at first for Wharton and Bairstow. Wharton, in particular, found left-armer Unadkat a handful bowling wide from the crease and moving the ball both ways. But he survived and there was respite when Simpson was forced to employ his other slow bowler Jack Carson with Coles as the light deteriorated. Bairstow played with increasing confidence and scoring on both sides of the wicket as he passed 50 for the seventh time this season, an innings which contained 11 fours.

Bairstow needed treatment to his left leg before the players came off for the last time but he had done an important job for his side.