In the remaining two hours Borthwick made an unbeaten 22, punching a two through the off-side in the final over to bring up the 100, and then clubbing away a short delivery from Rory Hamilton-Brown for four more.
STUMPS, DAY ONE. Durham 337 (Stoneman 113, Hatchett 5-113) v Sussex 20-0. Sussex trail Durham by 317 runs with ten first innings wickets remaining.
Points – Durham 3, Sussex 3.
A fine century by Mark Stoneman and useful late-order hitting ensured Durham have the upper-hand after day one of the Division One clash against Sussex at Emirates Durham ICG.
Stoneman weathered an early storm and showed his class to record a third LV=County Championship century of the summer.
John Hastings added 51 before a last wicket stand of 42 in five overs took Durham comfortably over the 300 mark.
Sussex reached the close of play on 20-0 after facing six overs.
Durham announced an unchanged side from the win against Lancashire last time out, while Sussex drafted Steffan Piolet in to replace Matt Machan from their draw with Yorkshire.
Captain Paul Collingwood elected to bat first after winning the toss but consequently found his side under pressure at 30-3.
Australian bowler Steve Magoffin looked particularly threatening with the ball in hand but Lewis Hatchett struck first, finding the edge of Keaton Jennings’ bat and wicketkeeper Ben Brown completed the rest.
Magoffin induced a false shot from Scott Borthwick, his airborne drive looping to Luke Wells at square cover, before Hatchett trapped Michael Richardson lbw to put the home side in a perilous position.
Durham required a substantial partnership to get back into the game and it was provided by Stoneman and new man Ben Stokes.
After seeing off the remainder of the openers’ respective spells, the pair set about counter-attacking and unsettling the rhythm of Sussex’s change bowlers.
Stokes proved the main instigator, punishing some loose deliveries from ex-England international Jon Lewis including a booming six towards the changing rooms, and the pair reached a brisk half-century partnership off 71 balls.
The England all-rounder continued in his attacking vein and brought up the team 100 before lunch with successive fours off James Tredwell, who is on a Championship-only loan from Kent.
Post-lunch the pair continued in much the same vein, going through to a three-figure partnership from 139 balls, but it was ended shortly after when Stokes miscued a pull into the leg-side, proceeding to find the hands of Lewis at mid-on.
Collingwood fell shortly after, edging Hatchett behind the stumps, but the afternoon session belonged to Stoneman.
Two pulled boundaries moved him serenely into the 90’s and his century came up via an off-side drive for two off Piolet, his 11th first-class century coming from 139 balls.
It took a fine one-handed slip catch by Tredwell to remove Stoneman before Gordon Muchall nicked Lewis to first slip and Durham were once again pegged back to 202-7.
With two new batsmen at the crease, Hastings and Phil Mustard were forced to re-build once again and the Australian took 25 balls to get off the mark as the home side crawled to tea on 222-7.
Hastings came out with more intent after tea and blasted his way to 50, including a mighty six off Tredwell over mid-wicket.
Lewis then captured Mustard and Hastings in quick succession, but the innings was nowhere near over at 290-9.
Rushworth eased home nerves to secure batting point number three, driving Magoffin for four and hooking him for six in successive deliveries, before advancing
By the time Hatchett dismissed him to claim his fifth wicket, the number 11 had added 32 in 18 balls to lift his side up to 337.