Adam Lyth scored his maiden one-day century on his home ground but that was not enough to prevent Yorkshire slipping to defeat against NatWest Pro40 leaders Sussex at Scarborough.

Yorkshire rattled up 254 for two against the table-toppers but Lyth's sparkling innings turned out to be in a losing cause because Sussex had charged to 230 for five in 31.3 overs when rain ended play to give the visitors victory under the Duckworth-Lewis method by 38 runs.

The bad weather agonisingly left Joe Gatting stranded on 99 - but the most astonishing knock of the match came from West Indian Dwayne Smith, who had sections of the 5,100 crowd taking evasive action while slamming 58 from only 22 balls with five fours and five sixes.

Lyth, who has been unable to gain a regular first team place in Yorkshire's LV County Championship side this season, showed off his talents by compiling an unbeaten 109 from just 95 balls with eight fours and four sixes.

In an attempt to inject some new blood into what has been a disappointing season, Yorkshire brought in James Lee, Azeem Rafiq and Lee Hodgson for their 'List A' debuts for the county and all performed well.

Yorkshire were given their usual flying start in one-day matches by Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph and the left-handers struck several boundary blows in putting on 51 in 10 overs before Gale top-edged a pull at Smith and was caught by wicketkeeper Andy Hodd.

Rudolph and Lyth went carefully for a while after the initial onslaught but Rudolph smacked Rory Hamilton-Brown over midwicket for six on his way to his third consecutive 50 in the competition and the pair had added 85 in 17 overs when Rudolph swept Will Beer to James Kirtley on the square-leg boundary for 68 from 73 balls with six fours and a six.

But the real fireworks began when Lyth and skipper Anthony McGrath went on the sixes trail in an unbroken stand of 118 in 13 overs, McGrath driving consecutive balls from James Kirtley into the crowd and Lyth dishing out similar treatment to Mike Yardy with massive blows over midwicket to rush him to 97.

Lyth straight-drove Yasir Arafat for four to complete his century off 89 balls with eight fours and three sixes and at the end of the innings McGrath had raced to 48 from 37 deliveries with four fours and two sixes.

Lee then marked his debut in satisfactory style by getting rid of openers Hamilton-Brown and Ed Joyce in his first four overs as Sussex dipped to 31 for two and things looked even better for Yorkshire when Richard Pyrah had Murray Goodwin caught behind.

Gatting, having started confidently, moved to his 50 out of 117 for three before hitting David Wainwright for a midwicket six - but he lost Yardy to a return catch by Rafiq.

Yardy's departure brought in Smith, who powered his first ball over long-on for six and continued to rifle shots into the crowd with amazing power, taking 26 in one over from Pyrah with a two, three fours and two sixes.

With the light worsening, Smith fell to Deon Kruis to make it 193 for five and when the rain set in Gatting had received 90 balls and struck 13 fours and three sixes.