Tremlett dominates sorry Sussex

Surrey 47 for 0 v Sussex 217
Scorecard

Chris Tremlett picked up figures of 4 for 32 but County Championship debutant Will Adkin dug Sussex out of a hole with a gutsy 45 on a disappointing first day for the Second Division leaders against Surrey at Guildford. Put in on a green-tinged pitch offering occasional uneven bounce, Sussex slumped to 101 for 7 before Adkin, 20, helped add 110 for the last three wickets. Sussex were bowled out for 217 and Surrey responded positively and were 47 without loss at stumps.

Most of the damage was done by former England seamer Chris Tremlett who celebrated his 100th first-class match with the best figures of his embryonic Surrey career. Tremlett struck with the second ball when Ed Joyce edged to slip and in his second over he uprooted Michael Thornely's off stump as he fatally shouldered arms. He picked up his third wicket two balls later when Murray Goodwin was lbw, although there was more than a hint that the batsman had got an inside edge onto his pads.

Sussex lost two more wickets in the 16th over to offspinner Gareth Batty as Chris Nash padded up and was caught at short leg and two balls later skipper Mike Yardy drove a ball tossed up to short extra-cover. From 47 for 5 there seemed no way back for Sussex but as conditions eased, batting began to look less hazardous, especially when Tremlett, who had been extracting steepling bounce on occasion, was out of the attack.

Yasir Arafat and Ben Brown added 40 before Brown appeared to lose Jade Dernbach's slower ball in the background and was leg before in the last over before lunch. Arafat top-edged a sweep to give Batty his third wicket after lunch and Adkin needed 29 balls before he got off the mark with a back-foot force off Batty to the third man boundary.

From then on he visibly grew in confidence and found a useful ally in Ollie Rayner in an eighth-wicket stand of 59 in 20 overs. Adkin is 6ft 10in and Rayner 6ft 5in and both used their height to good effect to combat Tremlett's bounce as well as playing the spinners well off the back foot.

Rayner was three runs short of a well-deserved 50 when Batty took a stunning catch on the midwicket boundary, keeping his feet just inside the rope to intercept a full-blooded slog sweep.

Adkin and Monty Panesar continued the recovery by adding 41 for the ninth wicket and earning their side an unexpected batting point. Adkin, who faced 139 balls and hit seven fours, eventually gloved a lifter to slip as Tremlett took his fourth wicket and the innings ended in spectacular fashion with off and middle stumps out of the ground as Corey Collymore was yorked by Stuart Meaker.

That left Surrey openers Tom Lancefield and Arun Harinath 17 overs to negotiate which they did without too many problems to leave their side well in control.