Sussex are entitled to fear no one in Twenty20 after producing their best performance in the competition's short history at a vibrant County Ground last night.

Twenty20 kings Surrey were dismissed for their lowest ever total and Sussex passed their target of 124 with five wickets in hand and nine balls to spare.

There is nothing a Hove crowd loves than seeing their old rivals' noses rubbed in it and the 6,000 full house revelled in Surrey's demise and the all-round excellence of their own side.

There were some subtle changes to the Sharks' gameplan and they paid off handsomely on a difficult pitch which lacked pace.

Sussex relied on four seamers as well as the effervescent Mushtaq Ahmed instead of trusting more overs to spin and the quicks did a great job, none more so than Yasir Arafat who took 4-21 including three wickets for two runs in the last over as Surrey failed to use up their allocation after winning the toss.

Although he went wicketless, the recalled Robin Martin-Jenkins proved a point with a solid containing job while Mushtaq got the key wicket of Mark Ramprakash just when the Surrey run-machine was threatening to cut loose.

What also helped enormously was restricting the impact of Surrey's big-hitting openers.

James Benning and Ali Brown plundered 253 runs between them in their first two games but last night they contributed just 24 with Benning miscuing to point in James Kirtley's first over and Brown, who hit the only six of the innings onto the top deck of the pavilion, losing his off stump to Arafat having been dropped at short extra cover off the previous delivery.

Ramprakash and Azhar Mahmood put on 40 in six overs but Surrey were in steady decline once they departed in successive overs, Mahmood playing on to Luke Wright in the 11th over having hit what turned out to be Surrey's last boundary off the previous ball.

Surrey struggled to get any sort of momentum after that with just 48 runs coming from the remaining overs and wickets falling regularly.

Mushtaq's googly, surely the most potent weapon in Twenty20 this season, also accounted for Stuart Walters and, while Jon Batty did a game job trying to hold the lower order together, he had no answer to a sensational last over from Arafat.

The Pakistani clearly revelled in the occasion as Ian Salisbury, Jade Dernbach and Batty all perished trying to clear the boundary.

Sussex's fielding was good and their catching so much better than Wednesday's debacle against Essex when Mark Pettini, who made 46, was reprieved three times.

The highlight was a sensational effort by Carl Hopkinson at long on who leapt backwards to intercept Batty's full-blooded drive and still managed to cling on to the ball as he fell back to ground with a thud.

Sussex changed their batting order with Murray Goodwin promoted to open and the wisdom of that decision was evident from the first over when he square-cut Mahmood to the boundary three times before collecting two leg side fours off Tim Murtagh in the next over.

Never someone to willingly acceed the spotlight, Matt Prior got stuck into Tim Murtagh with three fours down the ground as Sussex brought up their first 50 runs after just four overs.

Prior (11 balls, five fours) miscued to third man in Rikki Clarke's first over and Goodwin (20 balls six fours) was foxed by Murtagh's slower ball in the next.

But they had laid such a great foundation that there was no need for Sussex to take risks after that. Playing in front of a 6,000 crowd the day after appearing in front of one man and his dog in a second team game must have been an interesting contrast for Twenty20 debutant Chris Nash.

Sussex wisely sent him in first wicket down and he grew in confidence after hitting his first boundary. It looked like he might see the job through when he was dropped by Jade Dernbach only to mis-cue to mid on later in the over.

It was not quite plain sailing for Sussex. Arafat, promoted to five, hit a couple of boundaries before falling to Nyan Doshi and captain Rikki Clarke bowled superbly until Mike Yardy hit the last ball of his spell for a boundary.

If the Sharks beat Middlesex at Richmond tomorrow (3pm), Tuesday's return at The Oval will be set up perfectly.