Sussex today set their sights on toppling Championship leaders Warwickshire after a third win in four games virtually banished relegation fears.

The county completed their third win in four games at Hove yesterday when they cruised to a seven-wicket victory over Worcestershire, who now replace Sussex in the bottom three.

Mushtaq Ahmed took the final wicket to finish with 7-73 and a match haul of 13-140, his best figures for the county. Skipper Chris Adams hailed it as the finest bowling performance in his six seasons as captain.

Needing 111 to win, Sussex lost Ian Ward in the first over but Richard Montgomerie (37) and Tony Cottey (45) helped ease Sussex to their target with a second wicket stand of 80.

Sussex have not won at Edgbaston since the days of Imran Khan and Garth Le Roux back in 1984 but Adams believes they will not have a better chance of beating the side who are still strong favourites to succeed them as champions.

He said: "We have got momentum and we're going up there with nothing to be frightened of. I told the lads that they have only won one more game than us and we have a match in hand so there is a lot to play for.

"If we could win up there, all of a sudden they might start looking over their shoulders a bit."

While Mushtaq is in such outstanding form, anything seems possible and the prospect of him taking 100 wickets for the second season running, which seemed absurd a month ago, cannot be discounted.

When Championship cricket resumed on July 22, he had taken 33 wickets in eight matches and looked out of sorts but, in the last four games, he has added another 36 victims and now has 69 with four games of the season left.

Adams said: "There's only one word for Mushtaq. Awesome. The conditions were never easy for him in this game.

"The ground was soft and he kept digging his feet into the run-ups but he asked the question with every ball he faced. It was the best bowling performance I've seen while I've been here."

The only surprise was that the mercurial leg spinner could not inspire his side to wrap up victory inside three days.

When he took three wickets in 15 balls on Saturday, Worcestershire were 154-6 with the cream of their batting back in the hutch and another 77 needed just to make Sussex bat again.

Vikram Solanki (84) and Andrew Hall (60) held them up with a stand of 87 in 30 overs which ended when Solanki was bowled by Mushtaq after he had had a rush of blood and came charging down the pitch.

There was still an hour left when Hall became Mushtaq's sixth victim but Steve Rhodes and Ray Price dug in to add 74 for the ninth wicket and extend Worcestershire's lead beyond 100.

Adams kept Mushtaq up his sleeve and it was Mohammad Akram who made the breakthrough when Rhodes was caught at point after being surprised when the fast bowler found some extra bounce, a considerable achievement on such an easy-paced pitch.

Mushtaq wrapped things up when Matt Mason mis-cued a drive to mid-on in his third over of the day.

Sussex looked like making heavy weather of an awkward target when Ward missed a straight one from Hall, leaving the left-hander still 22 runs short of reaching 1,000 in his first season with his new county.

Cottey, though, gave a mini masterclass against Worcestershire's two spinners before his only misjudgement cost him his wicket and he got under a sweep and was caught on the mid-wicket boundary.

Montgomerie survived a shaky start, when Mason was a whisker away with successive leg before appeals, to get Sussex to within 25 runs of victory when he chipped up a catch to mid on to give Gareth Batty wickets in successive overs.

With just two games of their season left, Worcestershire look like joining Northamptonshire back in Division Two next year but the Pears' problems were the last of Sussex's worries as they headed to Birmingham today.

Just 13 points separate the six teams below Warwickshire and Sussex have a game in hand on all of them and two on second-placed Surrey. A win at Edgbaston would more or less secure first division cricket again next season, an unlikely prospect a month ago.

The side is likely to be unchanged but Mushtaq's sensational form has reduced Mark Davis's workload to such an extent that he has bowled just ten overs in the last two games. There might be the temptation to give all-rounder Luke Wright another opportunity although Davis's first innings season's-best offered a timely reminder of his ability to get useful lower order runs.

Ian Bell returns for the Bears and either Jim Troughton, who made a century against Gloucestershire on Thursday, or Michael Powell will make way.