Brown and Lewry earn maximum bonus points for Northants at Wantage Road.

Jason Brown and Darren Cousins shared eight wickets to earn Division Two leaders Northamptonshire maximum bowling points against Sussex at Wantage Road.

Off-spinner Brown (4-53) and paceman Cousins (4-36) helped dismiss the visitors, who began the day only three points behind Northants, for 232 after Chris Adams won the toss and chose to bat.

The home side closed on 23-0 from five overs to set the seal on a successful opening day as they look to build on victories in their previous two games, over Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Cousins struck the first blow when he trapped former Northants opener Richard Montgomerie leg-before in the fifth over of the match, and from then on it was a struggle for Sussex against the combination of spin and seam.

Only Wasim Khan, making his first Championship appearance of the summer as replacement for the prolific Australian Michael Bevan, offered any serious resistance. He battled his way to 74 in four-and-a-quarter hours, hitting 11 fours, until Brown had him caught at silly point.

Wasim and Robin Martin-Jenkins (27) posted 51 in 23 overs for the fifth wicket - the biggest partnership of the innings - but Northants kept chipping away, and removed Martin-Jenkins just before tea and Wasim just after.

Cousins rounded off the innings by holding a regulation catch at long-on as Jason Lewry looked to hoist Brown over the Indoor Cricket Centre, and home openers Matthew Hayden and Adrian Rollins then safely negotiated a potentially tricky 15-minute session before the close.