Jason Lewry gave Sussex coach Mark Robinson reasons to be cheerful at Lord's yesterday hours after the county's plans for their Championship defence had suffered a huge blow.

Mike Yardy is out for up to six weeks after a rising ball from Steve Harmison shattered his left index finger on the third day of the friendly against MCC at Lord's.

But Lewry, another cornerstone of last season's double success, is winning his battle to be fit for the start of the Championship defence.

The 36-year-old bowled at full pace in the Nursery Ground nets under Robinson's supervision, with former Sussex coach Peter Moores an interested onlooker.

And if he practices with the same intensity over the next two days, Lewry believes he will be fit enough to face Kent at Hove on Wednesday.

Lewry's pre-season was wrecked by a bacterial infection which saw him lose a stone in weight.

He said: "I only stopped being ill last Tuesday. I came to Lord's to try to get back into things but when I tried to do something last Thursday I had to lie down straight away because I felt sick.

"Since then I've been drinking a lot and taking on loads of carbohydrates and yesterday was the first time I felt somewhere near my best.

"If I can improve over the next few days as I did yesterday then I would be pretty much 100 per cent fit. I want to play - if you want to take 57 wickets in the Championship as I did last season you probably have to play in every game."

Yardy could miss up to five Championship games but his absence has at least solved one selection problem. Chris Nash will now get an extended run at No.3 and while Carl Hopkinson will be desperately disappointed at his pal Yardy's misfortune, the pressure will have eased on him too.

Harmison had already struck nightwatchman James Kirtley on the right elbow when he came bounding in from the pavilion end with the new ball.

In his fifth over he got the ball to rise steeply off a length and Yardy's left index finger felt the full force as it rammed into his gloves. It must have been bad for him to walk off one short of recording back-to-back hundreds at headquarters, having made 179 against Middlesex in 2005.

Yardy missed a Championship game last season after dislocating his finger at Horsham but a hospital check revealed more serious damage this time. To add to his misfortune, he was hit on his spinning finger.

Harmison's ten overs yesterday cost 29 runs - all of them scored by Matt Prior including five boundaries.

Like Yardy, Prior is hoping to force his way back into England contention this season so the sight of him driving Harmison majestically on the up through the covers will have pleased watching selector Geoff Miller.

Prior hit eight fours in a run-a-ball 37 before he was strangled down the leg side by Graham Onions, the first of three wickets in 13 balls for Harmison's Durham team-mate.

Sussex conceded a first-innings deficit of 40 runs but not until Chris Liddle, who will probably face Kent if Lewry does not make it, had swiped a career-best 26 at the end.

Liddle looked nervous with the ball during MCC's first innings which was perhaps understandable given the quality of the opposition and the fact that this was his first appearance at Lord's.

But he bowled a lot better yesterday and picked up both openers in his new ball spell.

Nick Compton gave it away, mis-timing a hook to long leg but Liddle got enough shape back in to Alistair Cook to trap the England man leg before. It was a big scalp for Liddle who celebrated in style, wheeling away towards his team-mates in true Mick Channon style.

When Alex Loudon top-edged a pull off Robin Martin-Jenkins to mid off MCC were 99-3 but after tea Owais Shah and Zoheb Sharif put on 84 when Sharif played back to off-spinner Ollie Rayner. Shah will resume today 13 short of his hundred with MCC leading by 266.

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