Gary Ballance made an unbeaten 98 to put County Championship leaders Yorkshire in a strong position against Sussex at Hove.

Ballance, discarded by England after playing in the first two Ashes Tests, made serene progress to his highest score since he made 122 in the first Test against West Indies in Antigua in April as Yorkshire reached 346-6 at stumps on the first day.

It was only in the last hour, when Ballance and Tim Bresnan, who was undefeated on 44, that Yorkshire had control. Until then they had certainly needed Ballance’s resilience after Ollie Robinson threatened to undermine his former county.

Robinson was released by Yorkshire at the end of last season after disciplinary problems but the 21-year-old seamer has revelled in his move to Hove. The three wickets he took raised his Championship tally to 44 and he, Chris Jordan – who was playing only his third Championship game of an injury-ruined season – and Steve Magoffin constantly asked questions of Yorkshire’s batsmen.

Ballance came in shortly after lunch with Yorkshire 110-3 and they soon lost their fourth wicket when opener Alex Lees played on to Jordan for an attractive 69 from 120 balls, which included 13 boundaries.

Robinson and Jordan shared the six wickets while Jordan also contributed three catches, two at slip and an outstanding one-handed effort, diving to his right, off his own bowling to remove Jack Leaning for a duck.

Robinson had earlier removed opener Andrew Hodd, the former Sussex player who was making his first return to Hove since 2012, for 11 and at 22 for 2 Yorkshire were in trouble.

The problem for Sussex was that Chris Liddle was unable to maintain the pressure imposed by the other three seamers while leg-spinner Luke Wells found little first-day turn. Liddle’s first five over spell cost 31 runs and allowed Gale and Lees, who reached an 80-ball half-century just before lunch, to rebuild in a stand of 88 for the fourth wicket.

Gale looked mortified to be given out leg before after Jordan struck him on the boot in the third over after lunch while Lees could count himself unlucky to be bowled off an inside edge that just did enough to disturb the off bail.

Even Maxwell, in his last Championship game for Yorkshire, found acceleration tough but seemed to be getting to grips with the slow pitch when he edged Robinson to slip for 43.

Adil Rashid (7) was tied down and lost patience, caught behind aiming a big drive at Jordan, but Yorkshire’s admirable batting depth was evident again when Bresnan and Ballance came together.

Robinson switched to bowling off spin for two overs in search of a breakthrough before taking the new ball but Ballance and Bresnan negotiated it comfortably enough. Ballance has so far hit 11 fours and an upper cut off Jordan over third man, which brought up his 50, and faced 191 balls.