Mike Yardy did his best to hog the limelight at Hove yesterday by scoring his third successive Championship century.

But even he eventually had to leave centre stage clear for Shane Warne to produce a moment of magic which tilted the balance on the first day of Sussex's first home match Hampshire's way.

Warne showed the agility of a man half his age when he dived full length to his left to cling on to a return catch inches off the turf and remove Chris Adams in the 66th over.

Adams had seen Yardy to his second hundred of the season and their fourth wicket stand was worth 34 but his departure sparked a Sussex collapse which even Yardy could do little about.

Chris Tremlett, Hampshire's beanpole seamer, switched ends to devastating effect, finishing with a career-best 6-44 as Sussex fell in a heap, losing their last seven wickets for just 18 in 11 overs. Tremlett took the last five from the sea end at a cost of nine runs in 26 balls.

All this after Yardy and Murray Goodwin had put on 174 to take their side to 184-2 and seemingly in a position of control.

Tremlett used his 6ft 7in frame to coax extra bounce out of a typically sluggish Hove pitch and on this evidence he looks an England bowler of the future. But it was the inspirational Warne who dragged his side back into contention.

There was no shortage of verbals when the two captains squared-up to each other but Adams was just beginning to get the measure of his opposite number when he held back on a drive and Warne tumbled to the turf and emerged with the ball in his hands.

The joyous celebrations which followed illustrated just how much Hampshire valued Adams' wicket and Warne duly struck again when he lured Matt Prior to his demise in his next over.

Prior, looking to dominate from the start, was hit high on the back leg as he tried to pull a ball which straightened and fizzed through.

Warne had opened the door but it was Tremlett who pushed it down. He returned to the attack and immediately took the key wicket of Yardy, who was undone by extra bounce.

After tea the Sussex lower order offered worryingly little resistance. Robin Martin-Jenkins was beaten by extra seam movement, Mushtaq Ahmed flicked at a ball down the leg side and Tremlett wrapped up the innings with two wickets in the 78th over as Mark Davis edged to third slip and Jason Lewry lost his off stump.

All of which tended to overshadow another outstanding effort by Yardy. As he was moving from 92 to 100 with two textbook cover drives off Sean Ervine it must have been hard for Sussex supporters to believe that this was the same batsmen who, not so long ago, was scratching around trying to break into the side.

It was hard work early on. Sussex lost both openers in the first five overs as the new ball nipped around and Richard Montgomerie and Ian Ward, who passed a fitness test on his dislocated finger, nibbled fatally outside off stump.

Goodwin had a reprieve on three when Tremlett could not quite hold on to a sprawling catch at long leg but slowly but surely he and Yardy began to prosper.

It was not until the 12th over that Goodwin played his first shot of authority when he rocked onto the back foot to crash Ervine through the covers but after that he grew in confidence, hitting Kevin Pietersen back over his head for the first of two sixes on the stroke of lunch.

Goodwin looked odds-on to register his first hundred of the season when Billy Taylor defeated him with a ball which kept low. His 87, which included five fours, came off 121 balls.

Taylor went off with a recurrence of hamstring trouble shortly afterwards and at that stage, a bowler light, it looked like being a wearying day for Hampshire's attack.

Yardy had a sticky spell in the 60s when the runs dried up but he worked out a way to combat Warne by playing as late and as straight as possible and when the seamers erred at the other end, he punished them ruthlessly.

He took ten runs off Ervine in an over to complete perhaps the best of his three hundreds so far and his 104, which came off 222 balls, contained 14 fours.

Sussex just about scraped past 250 and a second bonus point, leaving Hampshire to negotiate 24 overs before the close.

James Kirtley tore down the hill and struck in his third over when Michael Brown edged to second slip. Kirtley almost had a second wicket when Simon Katich jabbed forward but Montgomerie spilled the chance at short leg.

Quite how costly that miss could be will become evident today. Hampshire closed on 67-1 and have a platform to bat Sussex out of the game.

April 21, 2005