It says a lot about Sussex's consistency in Championship cricket that they followed on yesterday for the first time in three years.

The last time they suffered that ignominy was at Hove in May 2004 when Northants stuck them in again despite a double-hundred from skipper Chris Adams.

Ian Ward got a second-innings hundred and the game was saved comfortably enough.

But that match was played on a Hove featherbed. Conditions at Edgbaston over the last two days could not have been more different and it will take an Adams-type effort from someone if Sussex's miserable winless run here is not extended into a 26th year.

Warwickshire's bowlers exploited the conditions far better than Sussex's attack had done to dismiss them for 151, their lowest total since they made 143 against Nottinghamshire at Hove last May - a match they won incidentally.

They reaped the rewards by bowling straighter and to a much fuller length with Sussex's last seven first-innings wickets falling for 52 in 13 overs after Adams and top scorer Carl Hopkinson had led a recovery of sorts with a fourth wicket stand of 85.

It did not get a lot better when Sussex went in again, 240 runs behind.

Richard Montgomerie picked out the fielder at square leg trying to flick a ball from James Anyon off his legs in the fourth over.

And Chris Nash would have been furious with himself after spoiling a good start by driving hard at a ball from Warwickshire skipper Darren Maddy which he could have left alone.

Carl Hopkinson and Murray Goodwin have so far added 55 for the third wicket and Sussex will resume today still 134 in arrears.

Sussex would never admit it but opponents sense a vulnerability in their top order in the absence of the obdurate Mike Yardy, still a month away from a return after breaking his finger a fortnight ago.

After their last four wickets had added 82 in the morning, Warwickshire made decisive inroads in an awkward 25-minute mini-session before lunch.

South African Dale Steyn, their overseas player until June, set a standard for his team-mates to follow with his third ball. It was pitched up on an off-stump line, seamed away and Montgomerie followed it to slip.

At the other end the tall James Anyon surprised Nash with a quicker ball and then grabbed the key wicket of Murray Goodwin, caught low down at second slip by Maddy as he nibbled at one playing off the back foot.

Adams and Hopkinson had no option but to proceed with caution but for an hour in the afternoon they did a solid job. Hopkinson punished anything wayward and struck eight boundaries but when demon dobber Maddy came on the game was transformed.

Maddy has always been a useful one-day bowler but these conditions were ideal for his skiddy seamers. In his third over he surprised Hopkinson with extra bounce, caught Adams off his own bowling with a ball which stopped in the pitch and bowled Rana Naved via a thick bottom edge.

Matt Prior may have been unlucky after appearing to get bat on ball first but Robin Martin-Jenkins flattered to deceive, hitting his first five scoring shots to the boundary before playing across a straight ball to give Tim Groenewald a second wicket.

Steyn mopped up the tail, including Mushtaq in comical fashion. He had already backed away to carve the ball to the cover boundary and, trying something similar, saw his middle stump flattened. Even James Kirtley at the other end saw the funny side.

Earlier, Rana had finished with 5-123 after taking 2-44 in a marathon 12 over stint during the morning session. If he has to turn his arm over again in this match Sussex will have done pretty well.