Joe Gatting and Ben Brown staked their claims for a recall to the Sussex side yesterday.

The pair both made centuries in an opening stand of 224 against Oxford University to enhance their prospects of featuring in the County Championship clash with Yorkshire on Sunday.

Sussex will be missing Matt Prior, Luke Wright and Ed Joyce as they bid to make it three wins in a row at Hove.

Prior is on Test duty, Wright is recovering from a knee injuring while Joyce is unavailable for at least the opening two days as he plays for Ireland against Pakistan.

Gatting, who featured in the opening two Championship matches of the season, hit 106 from 101 balls while Brown, who struggled for runs in the first four Championship games, scored 112 at a run a ball.

Lou Vincent, also a contender to play against Yorkshire, could only make 13 at The Parks as Sussex dominated the first day of the three-day game after winning the toss.

Matt Machan agonisingly missed out on a maiden first class century when he was trapped lbw for 99 while Ollie Rayner (40) also scored good runs as Sussex declared on 462-7 from 83.5 overs.

Oxford crawled to 28-0 off 15 overs by close. Fast bowler John Glover, making his first class debut, conceded just two runs off his four overs, three of which were maidens.

Sussex will begin their preparations for the new Twenty20 campaign by taking on a Sussex Cricket League side featuring James Kirtley at Hove tonight. The match starts at 6pm and entry is free.