Murray Goodwin produced the best batting of a highly productive summer for Sussex to take the county a step closer to promotion at Edgbaston yesterday.

The Zimbabwean made a magnificent 150 - his seventh century of the season - as Sussex reached 315-8 at the end of the first day of their crucial tussle with promotion rivals Warwickshire.

Goodwin looked as if he might bat all day, but he fell four overs before the close when he was brilliantly caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Mel Betts hooking at Alan Richardson.

James Kirtley and Jason Lewry guided their side to a third batting point before the close and Sussex are closing in on the 189 points they need to make sure of first division cricket next season.

Hampshire's win over Middlesex yesterday cost them Division Two leadership, for a couple of days at least, while Gloucestershire will come to Hove for the final match on Wednesday with everything to play for after their innings demolition of Derbyshire.

But another seven points will be enough to secure a top three spot regardless of what happens elsewhere because they have won more games than any of their rivals.

Although Goodwin shared in half-century stands with Chris Adams, Michael Yardy and Tim Ambrose, who made a composed 26 on his first-class debut, no one was able to play a substantial supporting role to the star turn which made his efforts even more laudable.

Only two of Goodwin's hundreds have come on the batsmen-friendly Hove pitches and this one, like quite a few of the others, saw him take his time over his first 50 - on this occasion 163 balls - before accelerating with some superbly timed shots on both sides of the wicket to score his next 50 off 98 fewer deliveries.

If someone had been able to bat around him then Sussex would really have been in the driving seat.

But Adams' 33 was the next highest score although the seemingly nerveless Ambrose did more than enough to suggest his impressive one-day form in the last few days was no flash in the pan while Kirtley helped him add a valuable 43 later on.

Any worries Adams may have had that Warwickshire would prepare another seamer-friendly result pitch were allayed when the covers were removed to reveal a dry, straw-coloured pitch which he took first use of.

But there was still enough in it to interest bowlers prepared to bend their backs as Richard Montgomerie quickly discovered when he tried to pull a short-of-a-length ball from Vasbert Drakes, the first of the match, but only succeeded in giving short leg catching practice.

Goodwin and Adams were rarely inconvenienced as they saw the shine off the new ball and the second wicket pair were just starting to prosper when Adams was unluckily bowled off his pads by Dougie Brown after they had put on 68 in 21 overs.

Yardy, Ambrose and Matt Prior were all guilty of getting out to poor shots.

The left-hander, sensibly promoted up to No. 4 ahead of Ambrose, had helped Goodwin put on 63 either side of lunch and was looking comfortable when he chased a ball down the leg side from Alan Richardson and gloved it to the wicketkeeper.

Ambrose, preferred to the out of form Bas Zuiderent, got off the mark from his first ball and was soon helping Goodwin accelerate the scoring rate, hitting three boundaries in his 21 out of a fourth wicket stand of 71 before he slashed at a wide ball from Richardson, who had just switched ends, and got an underedge to second slip.

Richardson's inswinger ripped through Robin Martin-Jenkins's defences and plucked out his off stump and Prior was superbly caught by the diving Nick Knight at slip aiming a big drive at another delivery from Richardson which he should have been left alone.

While all that was going on at the other end, Goodwin progressed serenely to the 15th first-class hundred of his career which he brought up in the second over after tea, having supped his Darjeeling on 99, with a square cut off Brown for his 15th boundary.

How Warwickshire might regret dropping him on 61 when Neil Smith spilled a difficult chance in the gully off Brown, both in terms of this match and their own prospects of playing in the first division next season.

Instead Goodwin carried on in classic style.

He had just launched an assualt on off-spinner Smith which brought him 12 runs in an over when he was dismissed having faced exactly 300 balls and hit 19 fours and a pulled six off Richardson.

The team-mates and supporters who stood to applaud him as he trooped off were only too aware of the importance of his innings.