Half-centuries from Matt Machan, Mike Yardy and Luke Wells earned Sussex a 66-run first innings lead on day two of their County Championship division one match against Middlesex at Lord’s.

Machan hit a superb 81 from 107 balls, while Yardy’s 70 and Wells’s 61 were more gritty affairs as Sussex replied with a creditable 300 to Middlesex’s first innings 234.

But left-arm spinner Ravi Patel’s 4-42 on a worn pitch gave notice that batting will not be easy in the fourth innings of this game and Middlesex, reaching stumps at 47-0 in their second innings, are now just 19 runs behind and have the opportunity to set Sussex a demanding victory target.

Sam Robson did the bulk of the scoring in the last 15 overs of the day, ending unbeaten on 41 while Nick Gubbins remained becalmed on 3 not out.

At the start of the day Machan and Wells added 134 in 34 overs for Sussex’s second wicket, taking them to 155-1 just before lunch after they had resumed on an overnight 33-1.

But Patel, strangely ignored until 150 runs were on the board, struck with his ninth ball to send back Machan with a magnificent delivery which spun back up the Lord’s slope to bowl the left-hander through the gate after he had included two sixes and nine fours in a high-class innings.

Then, after lunch, Patel added the scalps of Wells, Chris Nash and Ben Brown in a skilful 17-over spell from the Pavilion End. Wells edged to slip in the first over of the afternoon session, Nash skied to mid on after reaching 22, and Brown had made just 4 when he lifted a drive to be caught low at extra cover by Ollie Rayner.

Hastening Sussex’s middle-order slide, too, was the fall of Luke Wright for 1 – bowled as he tried to pull a ball from Tim Murtagh that looked to be too full for the stroke.

Ashar Zaidi, however, hit Patel’s last two balls for four to take Sussex past Middlesex’s first innings score and start a revival which, from 216-6, saw relegation-threatened Sussex secure three valuable batting bonus points.

Zaidi made 16 before falling to the second new ball, caught down the legside off Toby Roland-Jones, but his stand of 38 with Yardy was followed by another important partnership between Yardy and Ollie Robinson.

That raised 40 in 12.2 overs, with Robinson playing some excellent strokes in his 26 and the 35-year-old Yardy cussedly blunting the Middlesex attack in what, having announced he will retire at the end of the season, could be his last appearance at Lord’s.

“It was the old ‘over my dead body Yards’!” said Sussex head coach Mark Robinson. “He played very well and it will be really special for him to make runs here if we go on to win the game.

“Our first innings lead is a good one, but this is not an easy surface and it’s difficult to know what kind of total will be gettable batting last. When Matt Machan and Luke Wells were batting so well earlier in the day it looked like we would get at least a hundred-run lead.”

As it was, Sussex had to settle for a halfway advantage of 66 after Robinson was leg-before to Roland-Jones, who finished with 3-88, and James Harris almost immediately struck twice in three balls to bowl Yardy off an inside edge as he shaped to force away square on the offside and shatter last man Chris Liddle’s stumps with one that seemed to stay low.

In between, to Sussex’s relief, at least Liddle managed to carve Harris away over gully for the boundary which raised Sussex’s 300 and earned them a deserved third batting point.

Although Machan clearly played the innings of the day with some sparkling strokes and a fluency at the crease which no one else could match, Wells also included twelve fours in his 133-ball effort while Yardy struck eight fours from the 148 balls he faced. Their contributions, moreover, were no less valuable to the Sussex cause.