Sussex skipper Chris Adams today praised Mushtaq Ahmed for keeping his cool during a bust-up with Chris Read.

Read raced down the dressing room steps to confront Sussex's star bowler after he had been dismissed for a duck on the second day of the Championship match at Hove.

Moments later Adams came off the pitch to make sure Mushtaq, who had been fielding on the third man boundary, was okay.

Adams said: "We are very fortunate that Mushtaq's integrity is impeccable and he handled the situation like the adult he is.

"I went off because I could see that Chris was very upset and I just said to (Notts coach) Mick Newell that we would sort things out at lunch."

Read is likely to escape with a rap across the knuckles from the ECB and Adams, like Mushtaq, believes that is the right decision.

He added: "I've got no bone to pick with Chris who is a smashing lad and a great cricketer.

"When you mess up like he has you have to hold your hand up, admit you were in the wrong and say sorry. I know because I have been there.

"That's exactly what he did afterwards which takes guts. It's totally out of character for him and the publicity it will attract will be punishment enough. I would hate to see anything else happen to Chris."

Adams believes players are occasionally going to blow their top because of the intensity of the modern game.

"If you want to play at the highest level you have to play hard and occasionally step close to the line," he added.

"When you go over the line it is regrettable but you come back, put it down to experience and learn from it."

The Read-Mushtaq confrontation was not the only talking point on an extraordinary day.

Umpires Graham Burgess and Rob Bailey summoned pitch inspector Phil Sharpe to Hove with 22 wickets falling on the first two days.

The surface is low and slow and offering plenty of assistance for the spinners bowling into the rough at the sea end.

But although they are likely to mark the pitch below average it will not be reported by Sharpe as sub-standard so there will be no points deduction for the county.

It is the same wicket which was used for last September's Championship game against Glamorgan. That was over in two days and Mushtaq took ten wickets - although it was abysmal Glamorgan batting, particularly in the second innings, rather than the vagaries of the pitch which was responsible for the early conclusion.

Sussex occasionally have bad days like Tuesday, when they were dismissed for their lowest total for two years, but they rarely have two in a row and they duly fought back yesterday to finish with a lead of 25 with seven second-innings wickets intact.

Mushtaq will not have bowled on such a helpful pitch at this stage of the season in four years with Sussex and he duly made the most of it, finishing with 6-72 - his 22nd five-wicket haul for the county which left him just two short of 1,200 career wickets.

When Rana Naved re-arranged Paul Franks' stumps shortly after lunch Notts were only 16 runs in front with two wickets left.

But for the next hour Sussex were frustrated by a ninth wicket stand of 68 in 15 overs between Mark Ealham and Ryan Sidebottom, who pulled Rana for six during an expensive over which went for 14.

In the context of a low-scoring contest it could turn out be the matchwinning partnership. It only ended when Ealham, whose shot selection was outstanding and included a pulled six off Mushtaq, made his only mistake when he mis-timed a drive.

Mushtaq duly wrapped up the innings in his next over when he bemused AJ Harris with a googly.

The leg-spinner had been in business within ten overs of the start once Rana had removed the obdurate Darren Bicknell early on, courtesy of a fine low catch at slip by Mike Yardy.

In his third over he had Will Smith caught off bat and pad and in one over he appealed five times with varying degrees of desperation.

After Graeme Swann, who had survived several frenzied appeals, was leg before to the googly, Burgess intervened. Their exchange looked convivial enough for Burgess, an umpire of considerable experience, has seen - and heard - it all before.

Mushtaq took a few steps away and then walked back to shake Burgess's hand, much to the amusement of players and spectators.

It was only then the mood turned ugly although Read could have few complaints about his dismissal - half forward to a ball which struck him on the toe. Mushtaq seemed unpreturbed and soon won another lbw verdict to dismiss Jason Gallian.

Sussex went in again facing a deficit of 86 and they would have been reasonably content to have cleared the arrears with only two wickets lost.

It was ironic that on arguably the most taxing pitch of the season their new-look opening partnership of Carl Hopkinson and Richard Montgomerie posted their highest stand so far.

The ball was only ten overs old when off-spinner Swann began wheeling away and he duly made the breakthrough when Montgomerie edged to slip.

Yardy was superbly snaffled off a thick edge by Read, standing up to Ealham, and Murray Goodwin was a victim of the pitch when his mistimed drive was caught in his follow through by Harris.

But Hopkinson played superbly, sweeping Swann expertly off his length when he had the opportunity as he grafted to his first half-century of the season in two and a half hours.

Adams will be there with him this morning and Sussex will know that any target of over 150 will be difficult to get on a pitch which is not going to get any easier to bat on.