Luke Wright strengthened his claims as Andrew Flintoff's long-term successor as England all-rounder with five wickets as Sussex took control on the first day of their LV Championship Division One game against Worcestershire at Hove.

Wright has regularly played one-day cricket for his country since 2007 but his current form with bat and ball suggests an opportunity in Test cricket might not be far away.

His five for 66 was his second five-for of the season and he has also been flourishing with the bat in recent weeks with hundreds in two of his last three Championship games.

The 24-year-old relished a pitch with more grass on it than usual at Hove which provided good pace and carry for the Sussex seamers and justified skipper Mike Yardy's decision to bowl first as a Worcestershire side without a win this season were bowled out for 256.

After removing skipper Vikram Solanki when the Worcestershire captain played on during a hostile pre-lunch spell, Wright returned either side of tea to take four of the last five wickets to fall.

With the first ball of his spell he had Steven Davies superbly caught in front of slip by wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd.

Gareth Andrew became his third victim when he top-edged a pull to third man and he wrapped up only the second five-wicket haul of his career with the last two wickets as Imran Arif picked out deep mid-wicket and Hodd took another athletic catch to end Gareth Batty's determined resistance.

Without Batty, who top scored with 46, Worcestershire would have been bowled out for less than 200 as he helped the last three wickets put on 95.

Yasir Arafat provided excellent support for Wright.

He made the breakthrough when Daryl Mitchell drove a slower ball to mid on and he picked up two wickets in an 11-over spell during a hot afternoon with Ben Smith superbly caught by Yardy running back from slip and Matt Mason mis-timing a pull after adding 44 with Batty for the eighth wicket.

Batty batted for 156 minutes and faced 99 balls, hitting six fours, but that was comfortably the top score on a day when plenty of his team-mates got out after establishing themselves.

Stephen Moore looked the part until he was pinned leg before by Robin Martin-Jenkins while Moeen Ali was bowled off an inside edge by Corey Collymore.

Sussex had 17 overs to negotiate before the close but they did not emerge unscathed. Chris Nash nibbled fatally outside off stump during an impressive new-ball burst from Mason while Ed Joyce played on to Andrew as Sussex reached 48 for two from 16 overs at stumps.