Sussex captain Ben Brown continued his rich vein of form with the bat as he and Chris Jordan led a recovery after a four-wicket burst from Worcestershire all-rounder Wayne Parnell in the Specsavers County Championship match at Kidderminster.

Brown became only the second Division Two player to pass 500 Championship runs for the campaign and his unbeaten 64 followed on from 156 not out, 60 not out, 131, 107 and 33 in his previous five knocks.

He was given excellent support by Jordan during an unbroken partnership of 83 after the pair came together early in the afternoon session with Sussex struggling on 102-6 following another impressive performance from Parnell.

When rain brought a premature end to play shortly after 3pm, the visitors had recovered to 185-6 off 51.5 overs with Jordan 44 not out.

Parnell, who had a spell at Hove during the 2011 season, has been a model of consistency since starting a three year contract with Worcestershire as a Kolpak player this summer.

He again showed his potency with the ball in dismissing Luke Wells, Harry Finch and Laurie Evans during an initial spell of 3-22 from six overs from the Pavilion End and then returned after lunch to account for David Wiese.

Adam Finch’s maiden first class wicket - plus a scalp for club captain Joe Leach – helped to put Sussex on the ropes after they had been put into bat on the pitch used by Kidderminster for Saturday’s Birmingham League fixture before the heavens opened.

But then Brown and Jordan joined forces and opted for an aggressive counter-attacking approach in adding an unbroken 83 in 18 overs for the seventh wicket.