Ollie Rayner was unable to bowl Sussex to victory against Kent yesterday, but he did enough to suggest that the county might have another match-winning spinner on their hands after all.

The absence of the current one - Mushtaq Ahmed - was always going to hamper their chances of claiming a seventh Championship win on a slow Hove pitch which has proved hard work for bowlers over the last four days.

When Rayner flattened Darren Stevens' off stump midway through the afternoon to claim his second wicket and reduce Kent to 155-4, Sussex sniffed an unlikely victory.

Yasir Arafat revived their hopes with two wickets in successive balls after tea. He ended a stand of 71 in 29 overs between Matt Walker and Dwayne Bravo when the West Indian played across a straight one while James Tredwell was unable to keep out the perfect first ball - an inswinging yorker which landed on his boot.

In his next over Arafat yorked Fulton but joy turned to despair when umpire Richard Kettleborough called no ball, the seventh time Arafat had transgressed in the innings.

It was not the only chance Sussex squandered. Bravo was dropped at slip off the last ball before tea by Mike Yardy and the obdurate Matt Walker survived two half-chances, one at short leg on 23 and then in the slips on 66. All part of the game, of course, but very frustrating nonetheless.

Walker defied Sussex for more than four hours in baking heat and Kent were perhaps fortunate that opener Fulton did not come in until the fall of the sixth wicket because had been suffering from sickness.

Together they negotiated 15 overs and although Rayner claimed his third wicket when Fulton was caught at leg slip there was no shifting Walker. He finished unbeaten on 71 off 220 balls with Kent 280-7 after they had been set 457 in 88 overs.

While Arafat's seven wickets made him Sussex's best bowler in the match, Rayner was the big plus on the last day as the county took over at the top of the table again - five points clear of Lancashire, who have a game in hand.

The 20-year-old bowled unchanged for 18 overs from the sea end during the afternoon and his confidence must have soared straight away when he persuaded Rob Key to drill a return catch in only his second over. Not a bad scalp for your first first-class wicket.

With runs on the board Rayner could afford to keep as many as six fielders around the bat and Stevens was unable to dominate him in the way he had when he scored his first-innings century as the youngster turned the odd ball sharply and had the confidence to give it plenty of air.

Stevens played several high-risk off-side shots which only just eluded the fielders. Then, anticipating the off break, he was astonished so his off pole flattened by Rayner's 'doosra' a ball which spun sharply the other way.

Rayner took a bit of stick after tea when Bravo got fed up with blocking it, but that is all part of the learning curve for a young bowler and the next challenge for him is performing as well when the situation is even more pressurised.

It was because he knew the most inexperienced member of his attack would do a lot of bowling that persuaded skipper Chris Adams to bat on yesterday morning when Sussex already had a lead of 431. The word from the opposition dressing room was that Kent fancied their chances in a run chase too.

Sussex added another 25 runs in six overs but lost three wickets including Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin, whose sensational batting on Saturday had set up the chance of victory. If nothing else, they deserved a bigger audience to acknowledge their hundreds than was present first thing yesterday morning.

Goodwin has now scored 439 runs in his last three Championship innings and if a few days at home with his family has this sort of effect on the county's best batsman perhaps Sussex should consider letting him have another mini-break before the season ends.

His 122 off 112 balls, which included 17 fours, was his third hundred of the season. How he must have relished the fact that it took Kent so long on to realise that he relishes anything short and wide outside off stump.

Prior lost little in comparison in a fourth wicket stand of 218, hitting 13 fours and two sixes before he was caught at mid on in the first over yesterday after lodging his second century of the campaign.

Luke Wright would have been mortified to have been trapped on the back leg by his former Leicestershire chum Stevens - a part-time bowler while Goodwin holed out looking to clear the long on boundary to give slow left-armer Min Patel his fourth wicket.

James Kirtley struck with the new ball when he pinned emergency opener Niall O'Brien on the back leg in the tenth over and Sussex were celebrating a second success in five overs after lunch when Martin van Jaarsveld was caught and bowled off a leading edge by Wright.

Lancashire probably have the advantage in the title race but Sussex will have taken a lot of positives from the last four days.

Their key batsmen are in form and they should have Mushtaq back against Middlesex on Wednesday at Southgate a pitch which is bound to offer him lots of assistance if the dry weather continues.