Pitch concerns leave Sussex sweating

The bowlers dominated once again at Hove to leave it all to play for in the Championship match between Sussex and Warwickshire. Sussex bowler Matt Hobden took 4 for 43 in a telling 10-over burst before Rikki Clarke led Warwickshire's fightback with an unbeaten 32 on the second day.

Bad light stopped play after an over of the final session with Warwickshire 180 for 7, a lead of 169, and even though the floodlights were in use it did not improve sufficiently to allow a resumption.

With 27 wickets falling in five sessions, the surface has unsurprisingly come under extra scrutiny. Umpires Michael Gough and Russell Evans have already marked it "below average" and if they downgrade that assessment to "poor" it will be reported to the ECB by cricket liaison officer Tony Pigott once he has consulted both captains, coaches, umpires and the groundsman Andy Mackay.

"A points deduction is an option for the disciplinary committee," Pigott confirmed.

Chris Wright and Tim Ambrose both needed treatment after being hit on the helmet but while the occasional ball bounced disconcertingly, there was some fine bowling, not least by 22-year-old Hobden who settled into a probing line and troubled the batsmen with his extra pace.

Wright, who had been promoted to No. 3 with Ian Westwood unable to bat after he was hit on the hand by Chris Jordan on the first day, was defeated by Hobden's first ball and the bowler also had Jonathan Trott taken expertly at second slip by Jordan with his 10th delivery.

Ambrose counterattacked with six boundaries only to be caught behind trying to cut a delivery well outside off stump and Laurie Evans became Hobden's fourth victim when he was bowled for 9.

At the other end, Steve Magoffin picked up two wickets, his inswinger defeating Varun Chopra lbw for 6 before he knocked out Keith Barker's off stump for a nine-ball duck. Ollie Robinson claimed his seventh wicket in the match when stand-in opener Ateeq Javid was caught at point forcing off the back foot after battling for 93 minutes and 27 runs.

Batting at times was fraught with difficulty but Sussex opener Luke Wells had earlier shown what was possible with sound judgement before he was ninth out for 92. He became a fourth victim for offspinner Jeetan Patel to a ball that kept low, having batted for four hours and hit 12 fours and a six in 181 balls faced.

Sussex, who had resumed on 140 for 5, lost wickets regularly in the morning session with no one able to match Wells' skilful innings until Magoffin helped him add 25 for the ninth wicket to take Sussex into the lead. Patel finished with 4 for 24.

"I do enjoy bowling down the slope at Hove but I have had trouble with no balls," Hobden said. "So I worked on running in slightly straighter with our bowling coach Jon Lewis and it has paid off. If you bowl that heavy, fuller length there is some variable bounce in the wicket so it's great to get four good wickets and hopefully I can get my first five-for in the Championship tomorrow.

"It's very well poised. If we can bowl Warwickshire out cheaply then I think we'd fancy our chances of chasing around 200. Luke Wells showed what you can do if you bat time and play with grit and determination. He got 92 and they could be very valuable runs for us.''

Ambrose added: "We're 169 ahead and although you have never got enough runs we have already got a score we can bowl at. To say batting is difficult is an understatement though, at times it has been nigh on impossible. It has swung on the first two days that has meant there always seems to be a ball with your name on it. If you put enough deliveries in the right areas the pitch will do the rest and it could be that the team who gets more luck will win."