Ambrose is cream of Sussex crop

The 18-year-old, born in Australia but English qualified through his mother, made 87 stylish runs at the top of the order and then pulled off a superb stumping and took two catches as Sussex thumped sorry Lancashire by 138 runs.

The county's second Norwich Union League win of the week wasn't entirely down to Ambrose's efforts of course, but the 3,000 crowd who gave him a standing ovation as he trooped off and the players who clapped him in at the end were in no doubt that they had witnessed something a bit special.

The only disappointment was that the teenager from New South Wales didn't crown his Hove debut with a century, but in turning back for a second after driving to long on he was comfortably beaten by Mike Smethurst's throw by a couple of yards.

But in just over two hours at the crease, Ambrose did more than enough to suggest that Sussex have unearthed another little nugget.

He quickly got the measure of a slow pitch, guiding the spinners into the gaps and driving and cutting powerfully when the Lancashire seamers offered any width and, until his dismissal, there was nothing wrong with the way he hared between the wickets either.

His performance behind the stumps was just as efficient as Lancashire opener Tim Roberts will no doubt testify.

Standing up to Mark Robinson, he had the bails off in a flash when Roberts over-balanced and lifted his leg and later on he took a smart catch, his second of the innings, to give the other new boy, 19-year-old Academy all-rounder Carl Hopkinson, a wicket with his third ball.

When Ambrose was launching the innings by putting on 99 in 20 overs with Richard Montgomerie, Sussex had a target of 250 plus in their sights. In the event their 229-5 proved way beyond Lancashire whose feeble 91 was the fourth-lowest made against Sussex in the 32-year history of the competition.

Montgomerie, who reached his sixth competition half-century of the season earlier in the over, was caught at mid on trying to hit a third boundary of the over off Smethurst.

Ambrose then put on 54 in 13 overs with Chris Adams before the skipper, inhibited by the combination of the slow surface and a ball which soon lost its hardness, holed out to long on.

Ambrose had faced 117 balls and hit six boundaries when he departed in the 38th over as Sussex lost three wickets in four overs before Hopkinson helped Will House, who smashed 28 off 17 balls including a six over long on, plunder 29 off the last three overs.

Lancashire's challenge was effectively over before it had begun.

Adams pulled off a sensational slip catch low to his left to remove Glen Chapple off James Kirtley in the second over and in the next the dangerous Andy Flintoff skied an attempted pull off Billy Taylor and the visitors were staring down the barrel at 3-2.

A combination of slow pitch, much improved ground fielding and some accurate seam bowling enabled Sussex to gently apply the squeeze.

Ambrose's outstanding stumping to remove Roberts made it 34-3 and Taylor, whose excellent opening spell brought him figures of 7-5-9-2, got the key wicket of John Crawley after only four more runs had been added when he sliced a slower ball to extra cover.

Robinson then pulled off the first of two run outs when his direct him from 40 yards away at third man ran out Scuderi and from 62-5 Lancashire subsided embarassingly to 77-9 in just four overs.

Robinson bowled Chris Schofield through the gate, Jamie Haynes was run out by the length of the pitch after Fairbrother changed his mind about a sharp single, Gary Yates was bowled by a beauty from Robinson which pitched on middle and hit off and Ambrose's excellent reflexes earned him a second catch and Hopkinson his first wicket when John Wood's attempted drive cannoned off the bottom edge.

Kirtley, warmly applauded by the crowd after his England selection earlier this week, finished things off with 13.4 overs remaining when he yorked Smethurst to complete victory shortly after 9.15pm.