LIAM Plunkett was left stranded six short of his maiden century as Durham were dismissed for 380 by Sussex on a grey and chilly morning at Hove.

For the second time this season No 11 batsman Steve Harmison was unable to help a team-mate to three figures. He was out for three against Yorkshire at Riverside, leaving Phil Mustard on 94, and this time he fell for a duck.

He pushed forward and edged off-spinner Ollie Rayner to wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd, bringing double disappointment for Durham as they had looked likely to achieve maximum batting points by reaching 400.

Plunkett and Callum Thorp added 51 in the first hour to take the score to 369 for seven before Thorp went for a big hit off Rayner and miscued to deep mid-on.

Mitch Claydon made only six before he got an inside edge into his stumps when attempting a forcing back-foot shot off Luke Wright.

It was tough on Plunkett, who continued to show the same responsible attitude as in reaching 65 overnight. Needing a further ten for his best first-class score, he was helped by a couple of early inside edges then moved to 75 when an attempted cut flew off a thickish edge to the unmanned third man area.

But he was untroubled in patiently picking off the rest of his runs, which was more than could be said for Chris Nash as he survived several scares as Sussex reached 22 without loss in eight overs to lunch.