Bean sets the tone and Coad does the rest as Yorkshire CCC closes in on victory

When Ben Coad got one to rise sharply from the Trafalgar Square end, the ball appearing to hit somewhere around the glove/top of the bat, Bean leapt high at third slip to somehow snatch it in his right hand before being mobbed by his jubilant Yorkshire team-mates.

Those spectators who were inside the ground - perhaps several hundred or so before the seats started to fill up after leisurely breakfasts - looked on in astonishment and were no doubt grateful for their punctuality.

It was just about the final action before the players left the field after 11 minutes’ play, the grey skies above spewing rain that forced a delay of some 45 minutes.

It was tremendous stuff by Bean, a magnificent slip fielder as well as a blossoming opening batsman, and it set the tone on a day when Yorkshire nailed down a match-winning position against the Second Division leaders.

Having started the day on 26-0 in their second innings, trailing by 111, Sussex were bowled out for 239 on the stroke of 6pm, Coad returning 5-69, and Yorkshire closed on 28-2 in pursuit of 103 for victory, Bean and Jordan Thompson the men out, both turned around and caught on the diagonal.

After Bean’s stunning catch and the rain delay, Sussex lost two more wickets in the lead up to lunch, George Hill having both Tom Haines and Tom Clark caught flashing outside the off stump.

When Thompson squeezed one through James Coles’s defences, the visitors were 84-4, still 53 adrift.

Tom Alsop, who top-scored with an unbeaten 86 in the first innings, and John Simpson, the captain, frustrated Yorkshire during an afternoon in which Coles’s was the only wicket taken.

At tea, the scoreboard showed 164-4, the deficit having turned into a lead of 27, and with Alsop having gone to his second half-century of the contest, from 125 balls with six fours.

If the home team were concerned, if not exactly fretting, matters swung heavily in their favour thereafter.

Alsop fell almost immediately after tea, well caught at the second attempt by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who reacted quickly when the batsman edged an attempted cut off the spinner Dan Moriarty, departing for 61 after sharing 85 with Simpson inside 36 overs.

Yorkshire struck again just prior to and after the second new ball, Fynn Hudson-Prentice badly run-out after an aborted single to Jonny Tattersall at point off Moriarty, before Coad had Jack Carson caught behind.

Ollie Robinson enjoyed himself with six boundaries but his fun could not last, Coad getting another to rise sharply to have him caught behind.

After Jaydev Unadkat lofted Coad to mid-on, Coad bowled a ramping Simpson for 67 to complete his 13th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

“I’m very happy with the way things are going,” said Coad after play; he now has 35 wickets in this season’s Championship at an average of 17.37.

"There’s obviously still a long way to go, but as long as I’m helping the team get promotion, that’s the main thing.

“We need 75 more to win, and there’s no real demons in the pitch.

"I think we’ve done really well to leave this chase.”