Sussex's record in the season's curtain-raiser does not make happy reading.

The county have won just two of their opening Championship games since 1990 and that record is unlikely to be improved today.

Much of the pre-season discussion at Hove has centred on the need to come quickly out of the blocks.

But it was only in the final session of the third day yesterday that they started to compete on equal terms with Warwickshire.

Mike Yardy and Murray Goodwin got through 22 testing overs after tea unscathed to take Sussex to 106-2 in their second innings, still 41 behind with a day to go.

It was tense stuff and Goodwin seemed intent on running his partner out on a couple of occasions.

But they survived and Sussex will need more of the same determination - but none of the high-risk running - today. They will only consider the game safe if they are still batting at tea. Certainly cricket manager Mark Robinson would settle now for one of those 'solid draws' which he insists his team are trying to avoid this summer.

Robinson and skipper Chris Adams will have been pleased with the application Sussex showed yesterday, both with bat and ball.

The county were facing an even bigger first innings deficit when Jim Troughton and Michael Powell extended their sixth wicket stand to 110 during the morning session.

Powell was dropped by the diving Duncan Spencer on the square leg boundary on 35 but apart from that Warwickshire pushed on - not at any great speed it has to be said - without too many alarms.

Adams delayed taking the second new ball for an hour and then Jason Lewry and Spencer, who only bowled four overs with it, struggled to make the breakthrough.

Instead, in his third over after replacing Spencer at the sea end, Mushtaq Ahmed opened his account for the season when Troughton prodded a bat-pad catch to short leg after making a patient 58.

Sussex were suddenly reinvigorated and by lunch they had taken four wickets for 13 runs in five overs.

Powell, having already survived one leg before appeal earlier in the over, was beaten by Robin Martin-Jenkins' nip-backer. In his next over Martin-Jenkins has Dougie Brown caught by a sprawling Spencer off a mistimed pull and then Neil Carter padded up to a Mushtaq legbreak.

Lewry seemed to be shaking off some early-season rustiness and was rewarded after lunch when he got some away movement to unseat Heath Streak.

Martin-Jenkins finished with four wickets and although they faced a deficit of 147 Sussex must have fancied their chances of saving the game once the new ball was negotiated on a pitch which seemed to be getting even slower.

Richard Montgomerie and Carl Hopkinson got through the first ten overs without any alarms and Montgomerie punished Streak when he strayed off his hitherto impecabble off-stump line with a couple of cracking boundaries through his favourite leg side areas.

The Warwickshire captain got his revenge in spectacular fashion. Montgomerie drove a ball from Dougie Brown to mid off, set off for a tight run and had his stumps re-arranged by Streak's direct hit when he was a yard short of his ground.

Hopkinson departed in the 16th over, caught at third slip off Carter driving at one which moved off the seam and Sussex were still 115 behind when Goodwin and Yardy teamed up.

It was tough going, notably during another high-quality spell by Streak after tea.

Desperate to rotate the strike, Goodwin twice called his partner through for high-risk runs either side of tea and Yardy would have been out by a couple of yards on the second occasion had Ian Westwood's throw been on target.

But they survived and batting was looking a less hazardous occupation by the time the light closed in with ten overs remaining and the offer to go off was quickly accepted.

The third wicket stand is so far worth 74 in 32 overs but Sussex will need a lot more of the same resilience shown today if they are to stave off defeat.