Wells and Goodwin punish Yorkshire

Sussex 295 for 2 v Yorkshire
Scorecard

Luke Wells and Murray Goodwin both made centuries as Yorkshire's decision to put Sussex in on the first day of their County Championship tussle at Hove badly backfired. Wells enhanced his reputation as one of the best young batsmen in the country with his third hundred in only his eighth Championship game, while Goodwin scored his second century of the season as Sussex closed on 295 for 2.

Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale probably felt a pitch with an even covering of grass would assist his seam attack and Ajmal Shahzad, who is one of the contenders to replace James Anderson in the England squad for the Lord's Test, did take the scalp of the in-form Chris Nash in the ninth over with one which nipped back.

Wells was only opening because Nash's regular partner Ed Joyce is playing for Ireland. Joyce is due back in time for the third day and his nominated substitute, Joe Gatting, struggled to take his chance.

Gatting failed to score off 40 of the 44 balls he faced before he drove loosely at Steven Patterson and was well caught by the diving Joe Sayers at cover. But that was as good as it got for Yorkshire.

Wells, briefly becalmed before lunch, reached his 50 with a cover-driven boundary off Patterson and during the afternoon session he and Goodwin made serene progress. Wells had one alarm on 79 when he was knocked off his feet by Ryan Sidebottom's yorker but umpire Richard Kettleborough adjudged the ball was sliding down the leg side.

The 20-year-old left-hander reached his century off 198 balls with successive boundaries when leg-spinner Adil Rashid obligingly dropped short and added seven more boundaries after that. He will resume on 143, having so far faced 286 balls and hit 23 fours.

Goodwin lost little in comparison to his partner although he did have one alarm on 49 when he edged between the two slips off Patterson. Otherwise Sussex's vice-captain looked in total control, feasting when he bowlers dropped short to play his favourite back-foot shots.

He reached his 46th hundred for the county, in 217 balls, with his 13th boundary in the final over of the day and so far the third-wicket pair have added 217 in 71 overs.

Sussex are giving Championship debutants to two South Africans. Left-armer Wayne Parnell only arrived at 6.30am on an overnight flight from Johannesburg to replace Pakistan's Rana Naved as overseas player, while all-rounder Kirk Wernars, who qualifies because of his Dutch passport, was also included.