It is stretching a point to describe Murray Goodwin as the Mushtaq Ahmed of the Sussex batting, but not, perhaps, by much. The contributions of the newly retired bowler during his county career are hard to overstate, yet Goodwin has been the rock of the upper order for much of the same period. He reached 1,000 first-class runs for the seventh time in eight seasons here and seemed on course to celebrate with a hundred from the moment on 11 that shaped the remainder of a greyish day, when Darren Pattinson failed to persuade umpire George Sharp that a ball had brushed Goodwin’s glove on the way through to Chris Read.

Pattinson could barely hide his anger and, following a slow, chuntering walk back to his mark, kicked the ground in frustration after the next ball. The crowd responded with a slow hand-clap; Goodwin responded by knuckling down and building a careful innings interspersed with punchy shots square of the wicket.

Justice, to Pattinson’s eyes, was finally done with a Goodwin misjudgment as soon as the second new ball was taken. By that stage, however, Sussex had built a handy foundation on a pitch with little bounce that is expected to turn before the final day. Mushtaq may well be cursing the dicky knees that have forced his retirement.

Mark Ealham, on his 39th birthday, was the pick of the bowlers, though age and creaky bones had nothing to do with the way that batsmen underestimated his pace. He has been doing for the unwary such as Chris Nash, not quite fully forward in time, for most of the 20 seasons of his career.

Nash added 82 for the first wicket with Mike Yardy, whose solid 64 from 119 balls mirrored an unbeaten 53 from Carl Hopkinson at the other end of the day. The moment of true class came from Chris Read with a brilliant catch at full stretch to account for Andrew Hodd after a genuine leg glance.

The sight of Rob Ferley turning the ball past the bat in the final session will have encouraged Sussex at least as much as Nottinghamshire. The home side have wasted no time in finding a successor to Mushtaq, giving a Championship debut to Will Beer, a 19-year-old wrist-spin bowler from Horsham who has impressed his predecessor.

Scoreboard

Sussex: First Innings
M H Yardy c Read b Ealham 64
C D Nash lbw b Ealham 28
†A J Hodd c Read b Ealham 5
M W Goodwin lbw b Pattinson 79
*C J Adams run out 23
C D Hopkinson not out 53
R S C Martin-Jenkins not out 13
Extras (lb 8, w 1, nb 18) 27
Total (5 wkts, 96 overs) 292

O P Rayner, W A T Beer, J D Lewry and R J Kirtley to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-82, 2-98, 3-124, 4-169, 5-265.

Bowling: Shreck 19-5-68-0; Pattinson 18-2-59-1; Ealham 20-6-61-3; Franks 13-3-35-0; Ferley 24-5-53-0; Prince 2-0-8-0.

Nottinghamshire: W I Jefferson, B M Shafayat, M A Wagh, A G Prince, M J Wood, *†C M W Read, P J Franks, M A Ealham, R S Ferley, D J Pattinson, C E Shreck.

Umpires: B Dudleston and G Sharp.