John Hastings dug Durham out of a hole with the bat on the second day of their County Championship match against Sussex, but was out of luck with the ball as the visitors opened up a 111-run lead at Chester-le-Street.

In what remains an evenly-balanced contest, Sussex moved on to 115 for three at stumps in their second innings after Durham were dismissed for 339.

Going in at number 10 for Durham when three wickets had fallen on 222, Hastings made 72 to earn a first-innings lead of four runs.

After Sussex had put on 164 for the last wicket on the opening day, Hastings shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 116 with Usman Arshad before both fell to Steve Magoffin with the new ball.

The rest of the wickets were shared by Ajmal Shahzad, with figures of four for 72, and Oliver Robinson, who continued his dream debut with four for 71 after his first-innings century.

He also held the catch at third man when Hastings was last out, slicing a massive swipe.

After 438 runs were scored on a frenetic first day, Durham had to graft through a tough morning session against some fine bowling.

The score moved on from the overnight 103 for two to 189 for five, with Michael Richardson falling lbw to Shahzad for 37 off the penultimate ball before lunch.

Scott Borthwick needed attention after being struck on the helmet by Matt Hobden and struggled on before departing for 23 when he edged Robinson to Ben Brown.

Calum MacLeod sparked the afternoon slide when, on 22, he drove lavishly at Shahzad and also edged to wicketkeeper Brown.

Phil Mustard poked a catch to third slip two balls later, then Robinson found extra bounce to have Paul Collingwood caught at second slip.

Hastings settled in carefully before going for his shots and went to his 64-ball 50 with a neat clip off his toes for his eighth four.

Durham had just taken the lead when Arshad fell for 35, driving Magoffin to mid-off in the first over with the new ball.

With little sign of swing in the evening chill, Chris Nash and Ed Joyce put on 55 for Sussex before Chris Rushworth moved one sharply away to have the former caught behind.

He also had Joyce lbw for 30 when aiming for mid-wicket.

Hastings toiled hard with the ball but was unable to take a wicket during a nine-over spell of sustained accuracy.

As often happens, Craig Cachopa's charmed life ended on 24 when Hastings was rested and the batsman lobbed an attempted pull off Graham Onions to mid-off.

Matt Machan began briskly before knuckling down to reach 29 at the close with Harry Finch unbeaten on nine.