Mike Yardy held Sussex's batting together at Hove yesterday with the sort of display with which he has gilded his reputation over the last couple of years.

The left-hander lodged his second hundred of the season in only his second Championship innings for two months.

A score of 355-8 is well above the first innings average of 280 at Hove this season but when Yardy was putting on 141 in 39 overs for the third wicket with Murray Goodwin Sussex looked as if they might bat Kent out of the game.

Goodwin played beautifully for his 82 but after he was double-bluffed by the wily Min Patel they were in danger of surrendering the initiative.

Chris Adams and Matt Prior went cheaply - Prior to a well disguised slower ball from Kent's West Indies debutant Dwayne Bravo - and Yasir Arafat and Ollie Rayner got out when well set.

Fortunately for Sussex, Yardy was at his cussed best. Infact, the only time he looked in trouble was when Kent were convinced he had nicked his third ball to the wicketkeeper.

Amjad Khan had already struck with the first ball of the match when Richard Montgomerie was only halfforward to one which nipped back. If Sussex had been 0-2 events could have taken on a far different course.

One of Yardy's most admirable qualities is that he does not allow such things to upset his concentration and after Carl Hopkinson's promising start was curtailed by South African Tyrone Henderson the second Championship debutant in the Kent ranks - he played a full part in an alliance with Goodwin which quickly flourished.

Goodwin cut and drove his way to his fifth half-century of the season in typical style. Yardy was more prosaic but when his drives split the cover field as elegantly as they did yesterday it is normally a sign that all is well with his game.

The biggest surprise was that Goodwin did not reach three figures as well. He had just lofted a straight six to add to his 11 boundaries when he came down the pitch to drive Patel, changed his mind and tried to cut - and ended up doing neither.

Kent were suddenly rejuvenated. Adams was leg before offering no shot to a ball which kept low, Prior drove high off the bat straight to a man brought in especially at short extra cover and the unfortunate Luke Wright ended up being caught at mid off from a slog-sweep which hit the back of his bat in Patel's next over.

Fortunately, Sussex have a long tail including a No. 9 with a first-class hundred to his name in Rayner and Yardy was able to repair the damage with both he and Yasir Arafat.

The Pakistani struck Patel over mid-wicket for six only to fall in the same over trying a similar shot while Rayner was stumped by a yard when he was deceived in the flight by James Tredwell. But those two partnerships took Sussex past 300 and Yardy duly pushed on to the eighth hundred of his career, made in five hours, 20 minutes.

By then he had the company of James Kirtley, a bowler who values his wicket as much as any batsman. Together they guided their side to a fourth batting point and Yardy will resume today having faced 293 balls and hit 13 fours.

He could have a busy few days. Mushtaq Ahmed is missing his first Championship match since joining the county in 2003 because of a sore neck and Yardy will relish the chance of bowling his improving left-arm spin on a pitch already offering some slow turn.

Coach Mark Robinson and Adams must have had one of their trickiest selection meetings earlier in the day.

The pitch dictated that Sussex needed a specialist spinner which left five seamers fighting for four spots. In the end they chose Kirtley and Wright ahead of Robin Martin-Jenkins because of their greater wicket-taking potential.

It will be interesting to see if they can take 20 wickets without their talismanic leg-spinner and whether it was a mistake to leave out Martin-Jenkins, the most economical bowler in the side this season.