How Luke Wright kept Sussex in the pink on a red letter day at Hove

The Sussex star with a love of the big occasion served up something special on this auspicious day.

His century also gave the county’s strike bowlers something to work with as they got their hands on the new ball just before 9pm.

This latest round of four-day fixtures is offering something very different with 2pm starts.

Floodlights were on in the later stages of the Sussex innings, although evening sunshine meant the natural light was the still the sort in which many a league or village match has been completed.

The crowd had thinned appreciably from its high point in early evening, when about 600 school children were still in situ and older spectators had popped in from work.

Time is called at 9.27pm

Admittedly we could really have done with the evening temperatures we were enjoying this time last week.

But there was a bit of a buzz around the old place in that early-evening period as Wright and then Chris Jordan made hay in the setting sun.

Catering staff were reporting brisk business with some items selling out, while adding it had been tough to know what levels of stock to get in for an event with no precise precedent.

Whether all that early evidence suggests pink-ball cricket is here to stay remains to be seen.

But this particular cherry, if it can be called that these days, did not last long.

Wright gave the durability of Dukes’ latest offering a thorough test during the run-a-ball century which took side from an unpromising 66-3 to the luxury of a declaration with seven overs left in the day.

He decided on the way out to bat that he would loft the first delivery he faced, from spinner Jack Taylor, over mid-on for six, which is exactly what he did. He went to 50 with another maximum.

There was a classic straight driven four all along the ground to bring up three figures, his first Hove ton in almost two years, and some lovely drives and late cuts along the way.

Such was his treatment of the leather, which is indeed pink although it looks orange from a distance, that the call for “New balls please” went up in mid-second session.

Umpires O’Shaugnessy and Baldwin had to change the ball in the 54th over because of excessive wear and tear and there were very few used replacements from which to select.

“When one ball goes out of shape the replacements that come out are still pretty new as well,” Wright said, revealing a less highlighted issue with the pink ball.

“I think the oldest ball they could bring out was 20 or 30 overs old but it’s still going to be the same for all teams up and down the country.”

Wright had made 118 with 14 fours and three sixes when he saw Phil Mustard clutch a superb leaping catch above his head at mid-wicket.

He shared a fourth-wicket stand worth 92 with his successor as skipper Ben Brown during a period which was probably the highlight of the first day for Sussex followers.

Brown, his fitness after a broken finger proved in the low-key environment of Chris Nash’s testimonial last week, was positive throughout and made his 52 off 62 balls.

Stiaan van Zyl played another valuable role, this time of the steadying variety, and Chris Jordan kept the momentum going after Wright departed, his half-century featuring eight fours.

Brown called them in as dusk gathered hoping to have a breakthrough by nightfall.

But there were no real alarms in the tricky light for the Gloucestershire openers.

Sussex have prepared seriously for this new test. So seriously that opener Nash was hit during a floodlit practice session on Saturday night and has been ruled out indefinitely by concussion.

His stand-in Delray Rawlins never really looked comfortable at the top of the order and Harry Finch was caught at second slip playing away from his body.

But Wright relished the limelight.