For once Sussex were more grateful to Mushtaq Ahmed for his runs than his wickets as the county battled to extend their reign as champions for a few days at least.

Mushtaq defied the pain of a badly bruised thumb at Hove to make an unbeaten 49 and although Sussex were bowled out for 141 in their second innings that still represented a decent recovery after Mushtaq had walked to the wicket with his side 68-7.

Middlesex were left with two days to score 284 for victory but they made a disastrous start when Ben Hutton bagged a pair, leg before to James Kirtley off the fifth ball of the innings, leaving Sussex firm favourites for a win which would put them 39 points behind leaders Warwickshire with a game in hand.

Seventeen more wickets tumbled at Hove as Mushtaq and James Kirtley shared eight between them to give Sussex a first innings lead of 142.

It was hardly surprising that there were more punters than normal peering at the pitch during the intervals, but the three men that mattered, ECB pitch inspector Peter Walker and umpires Peter Hartley and Trevor Jesty, were all satisfied.

Hartley described the pitch as 'low and slow' while Walker's prognosis on Day 1 was that poor batting was responsible for the clatter.

Mushtaq proved, when he added 84 for the eighth wicket with Robin Martin-Jenkins, that it was possible to score runs and his positive approach again on the second day tilted the contest Sussex's way.

They lost two wickets in the first over. Simon Cook pinned Ian Ward with the second ball of the innings and had Tony Cottey caught behind with the fifth.

Australian Stuart Clark exploited the irregular bounce to claim two wickets in three overs. Richard Montgomerie gloved a lifter from in front of his face to slip while Murray Goodwin was torpedoed via an inside edge and spectacularly lost both his off and leg stumps.

Chris Adams and Matt Prior hinted at a recovery, but amid much suspicious prodding of the pitch Sussex's two most attacking batsmen were rendered virtually strokeless, adding 27 in 13 overs before Prior was caught at slip as he pushed forward to slow left-armer Chris Peploe.

Michael Yardy fell to Paul Weekes' arm ball two overs before tea while Peploe found some extra bounce to defeat Robin Martin-Jenkins in the third over after the resumption. Middlesex must have thought they were in the box seat when Adams was bowled through the gate by Clark after labouring for 32 overs for his 25.

The captain and Mushtaq had added 26 for the eighth wicket and now, with the tail for company, Mushtaq really began to cut loose, hitting four boundaries and lofting Peploe for six as he drove the bowlers to distraction with any number of shots which fell just out of the reach of fielders.

Hayward was summoned for another burst and Mushtaq needed two spells of treatment after he was rapped on the hand. He eventually went off for further repairs only to emerge a couple of minutes later when Kirtley was beaten for pace by Hayward, the ninth wicket pair having put on 36.

Earlier, Mushtaq had more or less confirmed that he will be leading wicket-taker for the second year running after taking his tally to 75, 20 ahead of his nearest rival, after bowling 17 overs unchanged in the morning to take 4-66.

Nightwatchman Peploe and Sven Koenig had negotiated the first hour without too many alarms, but the innings went into a tailspin once Peploe had toe-ended a pull to give Mushtaq a return catch.