Honours even at Hove

Nottinghamshire drew their high-scoring Division Two county championship match against Sussex at Hove on the strength of fine centuries by Jason Gallian and John Morris. They had been set to score 407 runs to win and batted throughout the day for 379-8 and ended their chase only when Usman Afzaal (54) was dismissed - leaving Paul Reiffel and Andrew Harris to play out the last 5.4 overs.

After openers Guy Welton and Darren Bicknell were out with 59 runs scored, Gallian and Morris enjoyed a magnificent 222 runs third-wicket partnership in 52 overs before the latter was caught off James Kirtley for 115: his century included a six and sixteen fours.

Gallian was out five overs for 120, which equalled his highest innings for Nottinghamshire. When Umer Rashid bowled himmiddle-stump he had batted 281 minutes with 16 boundaries. The bowler who took a season's best 4-93 also had Peter Johnson caught and bowled David Millns before he had scored. Chris Read followed by skying Jason Lewry to mid-off and Reiffel joined Afzaal with their team 65 runs short of victory in the final 11 overs.

After they had added 32 runs in six overs Afzaal was bowled by Lewry. Harris, whose first innings 31 had helped the visitors avoid the follow-on, kept his nerve again to frustrate Sussex. Such a comparatively close finish had seemed unlikely when Kirtley dismissed Welton with the fourth ball of the day.