A battling century from England's Matt Prior seized the initiative from Yorkshire, who then lost two quick wickets on the second day of their County Championship match against Sussex at Headingley yesterday.

Thanks to Prior, Sussex were able to recover from 115-5 to 301 all out, a first innings lead of 29.

And right at the end of the day's play, the loss of Matthew Wood and nightwatchman, Jason Gillespie left Yorkshire tottering on 3-2 in their second innings at the close.

Prior was last out in Sussex's first innings, having scored 124 off 205 balls, with 13 fours and a six.

Although Matthew Hoggard bowled immaculately to finish with 3-63 off 30 overs, he would have been even more economical if his England one-day team-mate Prior had not got at him during a last wicket stand of 49 with Jason Lewry.

Hoggard's figures were a frugal 26-11-48-3 when Mushtaq Ahmed was ninth out, with Prior still only 77.

He picked the Yorkshire paceman up with a clean-hit six to move into the 90s and then cut him for another boundary to level the scores before completing his 12th first class century. It came from 164 deliveries, with ten fours and a six.

So successfully did Prior shield Lewry that the tenth wicket pair brought up the 300 together, but the innings was brought to a close by Craig White, who returned to bowl Prior and leave Lewry unbeaten on two after keeping out 40 balls.

The backbone for Sussex was provided by opener Carl Hopkinson, who hung around stubbornly until being sixth out, for 65 from 199 balls, with eight fours. His innings stretched over 74 overs and almost five hours.

But the first half of the day still belonged to Yorkshire, who kept their opponents pinned down, Hoggard, Gillespie, Tim Bresnan and Anthony McGrath each claiming a wicket.

It was McGrath who claimed the important wicket of Chris Adams, taken at slip by Wood, but Hopkinson dug in again in a 51 stand in 22 overs with Prior, who then found a more adventurous partner in Robin Martin-Jenkins.

He struck Richard Dawson for six and had breezed on to 29 when Wood flung himself into the air at mid-wicket as Martin-Jenkins tried to hit him over the top.

Gillespie was almost as tight as Hoggard, with two for 64 from 28 overs, and Bresnan also picked up a couple of wickets with his sharpest bowling of the season.

Wood's wretched start to the campaign continued when he offered no stroke at Rana Naved-ul-Hassan and was lbw, with Gillespie also falling lbw in the next over from Lewry.

Joe Sayers batted out the day's last six overs without getting off the mark and he and McGrath have a lot of repair work to do for Yorkshire today.

Updated: 10:26 Friday, May 05, 2006