HALF centuries from Mike Yardy and Carl Hopkinson held up Australia's bid for a morale-boosting win over Sussex on the final day of their tour opener at Hove.
Skipper Yardy made 67 while Hopkinson was undefeated on 65 at tea as Sussex reached 237 for four from 61 overs.
It was an impressive performance by Sussex's batsmen, who were positive in pursuit of a target of 418 from 90 overs.
Yardy and Chris
Nash launched the chase with an opening stand of 85 in 24 overs, Yardy racing to his half century off 55 balls with 10 fours, the majority of them stroked through the cover region.
Nash was more circumspect but having established himself he carved to backward point to reward Peter Siddle, who was once again the pick of Australia's four seamers.
Yardy slowed up after reaching his 50 to the extent that his next 17 runs took 65 deliveries and contained just one more boundary. By then Ricky Ponting was employing off-spinners Nathan Hauritz and Marcus North in tandem.
And although Hauritz bowled with more control than he had done in the first innings it was North who made the break when Yardy edged to slip pushing forward in the third over after lunch.
Hopkinson and Ed Joyce – the last Englishman to score a hundred against the Aussies in a one-day international in Sydney in 2007 – added 56 in 20 overs for the third wicket before North got one to turn out of the rough outside the left-hander's off stump and Joyce edged to slip for 34.
By then Hauritz had given way to Brett Lee and he struck in the second over of his second spell, beating Rory Hamilton-Brown to take his wicket for the second time in the match.
Hopkinson remained positive though, twice coming down the pitch to drive North over wide mid-on for six in the 56th over while Luke Wright began impressively with three fours off Lee.
Hopkinson's third six took him to a 64-ball half-century, which also contained three boundaries, and at tea he had helped add 57 in just eight overs with Wright for the fifth wicket.
Meanwhile, a merciless 131 in 102 balls from Yuvraj Singh helped India to a 20-run victory over a battling West Indies in Jamaica on Friday in the first in a series of four one-dayers.
Singh's powerful hitting helped India amass 339 for six, the second highest one-day international score at Sabina Park, but the hosts ran them close as they were bowled out for 319 in the 49th over. Chris Gayle (37) and Runako Morton (42) put on 65 inside ten overs for the opening stand before Ramnaresh Sarwan (45) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (63) kept West Indies up with the run-rate. The home team needed 25 to win off the last three overs with two wickets remaining but Rudra Pratap Singh bowled Sulieman Benn for seven.
Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin was then caught by Harbhajan Singh off Ashish Nehra.
Previously only Pakistan, against Zimbabwe in the 2007 World Cup, had managed to surpass 300 in an ODI at Sabina Park.
West Indies' total was a second-innings record at the ground.
