Johan van der Wath, the man Sussex signed as a strike bowler, came to their rescue with the bat yesterday.

The South African made an impressive 80 not out to lead a Sharks' recovery to 182-7 in their totesport League second division game against Durham Dynamos at the Riverside.

It would probably have been a match-winning performance too had it not been for rain.

Chasing an Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target of 172 in 39 overs after the first brief stoppage, Durham were 9-2 and had lost both openers in James Kirtley's new ball spell.

Sussex would have won had they been able to bowl ten overs but were only halfway through the eighth when the heavens opened a second time.

The game was eventually abandoned at 6.30pm, both sides taking two points each.

After two dispiriting defeats at Trent Bridge and Headingley in the last few days, a win here would have done wonders for Sussex confidence. As it is they should still feel a lot better about themselves going into a potentially awkward C&G Trophy tie against Bedfordshire in Luton tomorrow.

It didn't look that way in the 18th over when their top five were back in the hutch with only 60 on the board.

On a typically slow, seaming Riverside pitch Chris Adams lost an important toss for the second day running and must have feared the worst, particularly as Steve Harmison was making only his second one-day appearance for Durham in the last two years.

But it was not the England spearhead who broke the back of Sussex's batting but unheralded Australian Mick Lewis who took three wickets in his opening spell and came back to complete a return of 5-48 from his nine overs.

Matt Prior was leg before on the walk to the first ball of the third over and Mike Yardy and Ian Ward were both victims of excessive seam movement.

Adams followed an away-swinger in Paul Collingwood's first over and if Harmison was feeling peeved at not being given the new ball he did not show it, terminating a promising start by Murray Goodwin who chopped on in the big man's second over.

With Harmison and Collingwood giving little away, van der Wath and Robin Martin-Jenkins did well just to survive early on. They eked out 33 runs in the next 12 overs but crucially the partnership stayed intact which gave van der Wath license to flex his shoulders later in the innings.

He clouted Gareth Breese's off breaks to the boundary three times in one over to reach his maiden fifty for Sussex before launching Lewis over the short cover fence for six. But it was not just a display of brute force as a delicate tickle off his pads to fine leg for another boundary, this time off Neil Killeen, showed.

The seventh wicket stand was worth 110, 60 of which were scored in seven overs and the contribution of Martin-Jenkins, who sliced a drive to third man in the 43rd over to give Lewis his fourth wicket should not be underestimated.

Van der Wath's runs were made off 98 balls with ten fours and a six and the impression that his contribution had tilted the balance towards Sussex was quickly reinforced when Kirtley struck in successive overs. A big inswinger pinned Durham dangerman Mike Hussey while an off-cutter accounted for Jon Lewis just before the first rain break.

They returned 20 minutes later but the huge black cloud behind the stands eventually broke on the Riverside before frustrated Sussex could complete ten overs.