Luke Wright gave Sussex a welcome boost on the day the county were on the end of a deflating defeat in the FP Trophy.

Wright made 120 for England Lions on the first day of the tour match against New Zealand at the Rose Bowl from No. 6 - one position higher than he bats for Sussex.

The 23-year-old all-rounder came in after Matt Prior had been dismissed for ten and escaped on 28 when he was dropped at mid-wicket.

But he prospered to hit 16 fours and two sixes from 131 balls faced, adding 77 for the ninth wicket with Matthew Hoggard.

Wright has been desperate for the opportunity to prove there is more to his game than power-hitting in one-day cricket and made a big step forward in that regard with a career-best 155 against MCC last month from his new slot at No. 7 for Sussex.

It is still long odds that his innings will tempt England coach Peter Moores to bring him into the squad for next week's first Test.

But Wright's stock has risen considerably in the last 48 hours with this performance and rejecting a six-figure approach from the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

He said: "The big thing for me this year is to prove I can score runs in this form of the game as well and it went well for me yesterday.

"I was just trying to be positive.

We were eight wickets down when Hoggy came in and luckily there were a few balls in my arc so I had a little swing, it was my day."

Wright's performance will have cheered up Sussex coach Mark Robinson and skipper Chris Adams whose side will have to beat Kent at Canterbury on Sunday to keep their last-eight hopes alive.

The Sharks conceded their second-highest one-day score as Surrey, fortified by a stylish unbeaten 126 from Usman Afzaal, pummelled an attack which, Tom Smith apart, all suffered.

Even if they had been able to call on the hitting power of Wright and Matt Prior, a target of 347 would have stretched Sussex and they never threatened it.

Prior's replacement Andrew Hodd kept tidily and played some nice shots at the top of the innings. He was one of four players to score between 30-40 but no one went on and Sussex's challenge was effectively over when, in the space of seven overs, Adams was caught at mid off and Murray Goodwin beaten in the flight by Afzaal, who did not have many rivals for the man-of-thematch award.

Among the bowlers to suffer was debutant Corey Collymore who conceded 71 runs in three spells of six, two and one overs.

The West Indian, whose Kolpak registration was only ratified earlier in the day, bowled well within himself which was hardly surprising considering he only arrived from Barbados on Tuesday morning and had done little practice since.

There was no margin for error on an easy-paced pitch as the Bajan discovered in the last over of his first spell when he conceded four boundaries in five balls. Collymore was not the only seamer to suffer.

Robin Martin-Jenkins did end a punishing first-wicket stand when Scott Newman drove loosely to mid off but he was expensive along with James Kirtley, who got some stick when Afzaal and the mercurial Ali Brown plundered 87 off the last nine overs.

As was the case against Middlesex on Monday, it needed left-arm spinners Smith and Mike Yardy to apply some sort of mid-innings squeeze.

Neither spun the ball a great deal but they never allowed the batsmen to dominate either and Smith deservedly picked up James Benning, after he had sped to run-a-ball half-century, with a smart low return catch.

Mark Ramprakash batted well within himself which was all he needed to do as Afzaal began to accelerate again when Martin-Jenkins came back in the 32nd over and was promptly hit for three successive fours. Ollie Rayner removed Ramprakash for the second time in five days but only after he had lodged the 80th one-day 50 of his career.