Jon Lewis and Ed Joyce put a huge dent in Nottinghamshire’s hopes of pushing for victory on the third morning at Hove.

The pair completed a century partnership for the ninth wicket to ensure Sussex past the follow-on target of 303.

Joyce was left unbeaten on 164 when Sussex were finally dismissed for 355 just before lunch, trailing Notts’ first innings total of 452 by 97.

Sussex still required 33 runs when play began and with the ball only five overs old but suffered few alarms against the twin threat of Stuart Broad and Peter Siddle.

Lewis hit Broad for three fours as they continued to frustrate Notts with Joyce taking Sussex past the follow-on target by guiding Siddle to the third man boundary.

Their partnership eventually came to an end of 117 when Lewis slapped Andre Adams to the man running in from the cover boundary having scored a precious 38.

That was only 21 short of the previous record for the ninth wicket against Notts set by Fred Tate and Joe Vine back in 1901.

Joyce played with more urgency following the departure of Lewis and hit Samit Patel for consecutive boundaries to bring up his 150. It came off 273 balls and was the fourth time he had exceeded 150 against Notts in first class cricket.

He offered just one chance when he was on 159 when he drove the ball straight back to Adams but the bowler was unable to hold on.

Joyce ran out of partners though when Matt Hobden was trapped lbw for a duck by Adams who finished with figures of 5-65.