Dominic Thornely produced a career best bowling performance on his home debut as Hampshire routed Sussex - after losing the toss.

Thornely took 1-11 on his championship debut for Hampshire at Lancashire and he continued to impress in his first appearance for the county at The Rose Bowl yesterday.

The Australian, the third change in Hampshire's seam attack, struck for the first time after lunch when he had Carl Hopkinson caught at deep mid wicket.

Thornely also dismissed Robin Martin-Jenkins and Luke Wright in his second spell and finished with 3-38 from 13 overs as Hampshire bowled out their south coast rivals for 212.

The 27-year old's previous best performance with the ball was 3-52 for New South Wales.

But, like Dimitri Mascarenhas and Sean Ervine, he has shown he is capable of providing wickets as well as runs.

Batting was difficult on a slow wicket of variable bounce on which opening bat Hopkinson took 37 balls and 65 minutes to score his first run.

The opening spells from Chris Tremlett and James Bruce also made life hard for the batsmen.

Tremlett will bowl worse and take five wickets and it was hard to believe he finished without any reward after bowling 16 tight overs from the pavilion end.

Bruce continues to impress.

He took the penultimate wicket of Mushtaq Ahmed, caught at third slip, as well as the first one, the important scalp of Richard Montgomerie, during a highly-economical opening spell (8-4-7-1).

Ervine, meanwhile, continues to show no ill effects to the knee surgery he underwent six months ago.

The Zimbabwean was bowling at the Rose Bowl for the first time since destroying the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a delivery against Nottinghamshire last September.

But once again he showed that he has made an outstanding recovery well ahead of schedule by claiming the vital wickets of Michael Yardy and Murray Goodwin in successive overs.

Left hander Yardy was caught down the leg side and then Goodwin, Ervine's fellow Zimbabwean and Western Australia colleague, fended to third slip.

Ervine, last season's Player of the Year, later had Andrew Hodd caught behind, but it needed Shaun Udal's off spin to dismiss the Sussex top scorers.

Chris Adams was the biggest threat.

The visiting captain arrived at the crease with his side 40-3 but he ensured something of a recovery, putting on 74 for the fourth wicket with Hopkinson and hitting 64 from 140 balls before the ever-alert Pothas held on to a bat pad catch in front of the popping crease.

Udal also ended the Sussex innings when Rana Naved slogged him to Thornely on the mid wicket boundary to end a run-a-ball 38 that included four fours and the only six of the innings over long on off Udal.

Ten minutes later Rana Naved, playing his first game of the season, found Michael Brown's outside edge with the first ball of the Hampshire innings.

Sussex left James Kirtley out of their attack. The ex-England seamer practised his new-look action against Hampshire's second XI at The Rose Bowl a fortnight ago, but was not confident to use it in a championship match for the first time.