Dutchman Bas Zuiderent proved a more-than-adequate stand-in for Michael Bevan as Sussex continued their climb up the National League table under the Hove lights last night.

With Bevan on duty for Australia for the next three weeks, Sussex turned to the 23-year-old against Lancas-hire and he responded with a sparkling 68 in a total of 213-6.

Fresh from a match-winning century for Brighton & Hove in the Sussex League Cup final the previous day, Zuiderent and Will House rescued the Sharks from a shaky 64-4 with a rousing stand of 141 in 24 overs.

Lancashire were left to chase 220 from 41 overs after four overs of the Sussex innings had been lost to rain and when Andrew Flintoff and Neil Fair-brother were adding 75 in 13 overs for the third wicket, the champions looked fav-ourites.

But Umer Rashid snared Flintoff with his fourth delivery and when Fairbrother played on in the next over the vast majority of the full house crowd of nearly 5,000 knew they would be celebrating Sussex's fourth win in five games.

Victory by 27 runs, achieved with ten balls to spare, was enough to lift Sussex out of the relegation zone and within six points of leaders Worcestershire whom they meet on Sunday.

In his five previous one-day matches - four of them last season - Zuiderent had managed just 29 runs and in his only other appearance at Hove against Surrey in the Benson & Hedges Cup he made two.

How different things were last night compared to that cheerless April day.

Coach Peter Moores has detected a more mature approach to Zuiderent's cricket this season and he certainly needed a cool head after some of his colleagues lost theirs as Sussex tumbled to 35-3 in the eighth over.

Chris Adams had an ill-advised slash at Ian Austin's third ball and was caught at slip while Rashid drove Glen Chapple's slower ball straight to short extra cover in the sixth over.

Tony Cottey was sent back turning for a third run after driving Chapple to deep mid-wicket in his next over. He would have made his ground comfortably had he not slipped in mid-pitch.

Zuiderent was watchful at first, but booming straight gave him successive boundaries off Mark Chilton and after that he seemed to grow in confidence.

Montgomerie was caught behind in the 16th over, but House and Zuiderent gradually increased the tempo, picking off Lancashire's three spinners with relative ease and taking full toll of anything loose from the seamers.

Not even the rain break could stall their momentum. In 11 overs after the stoppage the fifth-wicket pair added 85 before Zuiderent was yorked by Chapple after hitting six boundaries and a straight six off Gary Yates in 86 balls faced.

House was unbeaten on 80, his highest one-day score for the county, made off 81 balls with ten fours, the majority of them scored off the spinners against whom he showed good footwork and improvisation in equal measure.

James Kirtley accounted for both Lancashire openers with just 17 on the board, John Crawley falling to a blinding catch at short mid-wicket by Montgomerie.

But Flintoff picked off anything loose and his partnership with Fairbrother was starting to look ominous when Flintoff chipped up a return catch to Rashid off a ball which stopped on him after making 41.

Mark Robinson bowled Fairbrother or the same score.

Although resourceful contributions from Graham Lloyd (28), Warren Hegg (20) and Chris Schofield (15) kept Lancashire interested, Sussex bowled tight in the crucial overs, and Kirtley finished with 4-45.