Coach Mark Robinson defended the decision to play only five frontline batsmen after Sussex crashed to an eight-wicket defeat in their opening Championship match of the season.

The lack of depth in Sussex’s batting was exposed again yesterday as they lost their last five wickets for just 19 runs to crash to 167 all out in their second innings.

That left Lancashire chasing just 158 for victory and, after an early wobble, Ashwell Prince and Francois Du Plessis guided them home with plenty to spare.

Sussex had also suffered a dramatic collapse in their first innings and Robinson admitted he would have liked to have bolstered the batting by including either Joe Gatting or Rory Hamilton-Brown.

A fifth seamer, Ragheb Aga, was drafted in instead due to question marks over the fitness of Luke Wright and Corey Collymore but the Kenya international ended up bowling only seven overs in the match.

Robinson said: “We were probably carrying a bowler too many but we played Ragheb because we felt that one of the two would not be able to bowl in the second innings.

“Corey only passed a fitness test on the morning of the game and Luke has only just come back from an ankle injury so we made the decision on medical advice.

“In the end Luke and Corey both came through okay but if they hadn’t we might have been left with only two and a half bowlers in the second innings.

“Our best team would have seven batsmen in it but we still had enough batting in our team to win the match. Tom Smith averaged 50 in the second team last year and Ragheb is a genuine all-rounder.”

Sussex’s hopes of forcing an unlikely win rested on adding significantly to their overnight score of 148-5 but their lower order collapsed for the second time in the match.

They lost their last five wickets for just 39 runs in the first innings but could not even manage that yesterday.

Once again Jimmy Anderson was the destroyer in chief having Luke Wright caught behind with his first ball – the sixth of the morning – without adding to his overnight score of 35.

Smith and Robin Martin-Jenkins departed soon after as the England bowler followed up his six-wicket haul in the first innings to claim career-best match figures of 11-109.

Left-arm spinner Gary Keedy then dismissed Ragheb Aga and Damien Wright in the space of four balls to finish with 5-45 as Lancashire took just 48 minutes to wrap up the Sussex innings.

Corey Collymore gave Sussex brief hope when he removed Paul Horton and Tom Smith before lunch but Prince and Du Plessis soon set about steadying Lancashire’s nerves.

The pair put on an unbeaten stand of 148 in 31 overs and it was fitting that Prince brought up victory with a boundary off Smith 25 minutes before tea.

The South African finished just nine short of his century in an innings which included 11 fours and a six and he received good support from Du Plessis, whose 58 was his highest first class score for Lancashire.

This defeat follows the seven-wicket loss to Gloucestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy last weekend and Sussex need to pick themselves up quickly for the trip to Yorkshire at Headingley in the FPT tomorrow.

Robinson added: “It looks like we have been stuffed in our two games so far but that is not the case at all.

“For three quarters of both matches we have been in the contest but have let ourselves down at key moments. We played well for 90% of the game but the other 10% cost us. We had great windows to win the match and it came down to the team that threw it away most. Unfortunately that turned out to be us.”

Did Sussex get their team wrong or was Anderson just too good? Let us have your thoughts.