Chris Adams admits he is surprised that Sussex are not setting the pace in the Championship after their best start since promotion in 2002.

The county made it two wins out of three when they completed a five-wicket victory over Yorkshire at Headingley on Saturday.

Yet they still find themselves trailing Lancashire and Warwickshire ahead of tomorrow's Hove contest against champions Nottinghamshire.

Adams said: "It just shows what a great league it is going to be this season. I would have put my mortgage on us being top after two wins and a draw but there are two good sides above us."

Adams refused to get drawn into a debate about the merits of their first division rivals, even when it was pointed out that Shane Warne had declared in the wake of Hampshire's win over Middlesex on Friday that his side were the best in the country.

Time will tell whether Warne will regret those remarks. For his part, Adams is thrilled with Sussex's start to a campaign many people thought might prove to be a struggle.

All his batsmen look in good nick and now Matt Prior has come back into the side at six and made the only century of the match in the first innings and a composed 53 not out in the second to guide Sussex to victory.

If Prior was the batting star then Rana Naved was undoubtedly their hero with the ball.

Adams and everyone else are starting to run out of superlatives for a player with 71 wickets at 18.85 in just 11 games.

Instead, the skipper is increasingly focusing his efforts on trying to replace the irreplaceable when Rana joins up with Pakistan for their tour of England.

When exactly that is remains unclear. Pakistan have arranged a training camp (in Scotland of all places) at the end of June but it has not been decided if he will have to attend or not.

But Sussex do not expect him to be available after the return game against Yorkshire at Arundel which finishes on June 24 and he might even have to go before, which would certainly please the Yorkies.

Sussex are keeping their options open over Rana's locum. But the rapid development of Carl Hopkinson at the top of the order suggests they will opt for a like-for-like replacement rather than a batsman and it will probably be one of the Pakistani seamers left out of their touring squad.

Adams said: "My inclination would be towards favouring a quick bowler. Pakistan have got a lot of quality seamers and some of them are not going to make it into their squad.

"We're fortunate that Mushtaq Ahmed is very close to their set-up which helps us get the inside track on their thinking.

"I just feel that having someone with that extra yard of pace makes such a difference, it gives your attack an extra dimension. The main difference at Headingley was that we out-swung and out-reversed their bowlers.

"We will keep an eye on who is in favour and who is not internationally but if we are competing for the Championship then we might attract someone who is high-profile, a proven performer who likes the chance of playing in a winning team."

In the end, Sussex's progress to a third successive win at Headingley on Saturday was more serene than most people were expecting.

Prior and Robin Martin-Jenkins knocked off the 54 more runs required in 50 minutes with Prior belting a delivery from Tim Bresnan through mid-wicket for his sixth four to finish the job.

An early wicket would have made things a bit tense but there was only one moment of alarm when Martin-Jenkins edged Matthew Hoggard and would have given first slip an easy catch, had Yorkshire had any catchers in position.

Once the threat of Hoggard and Gillespie had been negated Sussex were home and dry, Prior reaching the 27th 50 of his career off 87 balls.

Yorkshire coach David Byas felt that his side had lost their chance when their last six wickets went down for 29 runs on the third day.

He said: "I haven't seen anything in Warwickshire or Sussex to frighten us but in Rana and Prior with the bat they had the two best performers."

Ironically, Rana could have been lining up for Yorkshire instead of destroying them. He was recommended to the county by Ray Illingworth when Rana had a season in the Bradford League with Pudsey Congs. But Yorkshire never followed it up.

  • Scores: Yorkshire 272 and 221, Sussex 301 and 193-5. Sussex (20pts) beat Yorkshire (5) by 5 wkts.