Kmowing the affection Peter Moores still has for Sussex cricket, it probably gave him as much pleasure that on the day he was appointed England coach the side he put together was making such a spirited start to their Championship defence.

Every member of the team on duty against Kent was brought to the county by Moores and they have done him and his successor Mark Robinson proud.

After piling up 510 which gave them a lead of 296, Sussex dismissed Kent for 349 in their second innings and would have wrapped up victory with a day to spare had it not been for a rollicking last-wicket stand of 86 between Min Patel and Robbie Joseph.

Sussex negotiated two overs of their second innings last night without alarm. They will resume today on 6-0 with 50 needed for victory.

Most of the plaudits will rightly go to Mushtaq Ahmed after he completed the 13th ten-wicket haul of his Sussex career.

But the sight of Rana Naved steaming down the slope to take four wickets, seemingly rehabilitated after a troubled winter with Pakistan, will have given Robinson and skipper Chris Adams almost as much satisfaction.

The 29-year-old could be key both to Sussex's hopes of another title this summer and perhaps their long-term planning as well.

Counties will only be allowed one overseas player next season and they would love to have Rana once Mushtaq finally retires, hopefully with Saqlain Mushtaq rejuvenated in the same way as the leg-spinner has been.

Those decisions will not have to be made for a while so for the next few months Sussex supporters will enjoy the sight of Mushtaq probing away at one end and Rana, with slightly less subtlety, hammering down batsmen's defences at the other.

Rana took 35 wickets in just six matches last season before injury and international commitments curtailed his county season and there is no mistaking his appetite to enjoy more success in 2007.

His worth to Sussex is two-fold. He can make inroads with the new ball as he did yesterday when he took the key wicket of Martin van Jaarsveld in his seventh over.

If anything, though, he is more deadly with the old ball. The outfield is too lush at this stage of the season to help reverse swing but if you are prepared to bend your back as Rana was then the rewards are there.

Kent were fighting back when Yasir Arafat and Ryan McLaren were adding 63 after tea for their eighth wicket.

Adams summoned his main strike bowler for another burst and in his second over he had Arafat strangled down the leg side, although Arafat clearly felt the ball had deflected off his sweater and not the bat and he may have had a point.

Two overs later McLaren was beaten for pace and the same fate befell Simon Cook whose off stump was sent cartwheeling out of the ground - always a satisfying sight for the fast men.

Adams must be the envy of every other county captain. He can keep his quicker bowlers fresh by rotating them at one end while Mushtaq wheels away at the other.

He brought on his star leg-spinner after just six overs but it took him 17 overs to strike - and then, typically, he took two wickets in seven balls.

Opener Joe Denly had added 100 with Matt Walker for the third wicket and lodged his third Championship half-century. But he was caught at silly point off combination of pad and glove and then Walker top-edged to deep square leg where Murray Goodwin took a sprawling low catch.

Darren Stevens became his third victim with Luke Wright taking a catch as good as Goodwin's in the deep and Wright, who has a habit of making quick inroads, took a wicket with just his fifth delivery of the match when Geraint Jones wafted airily outside his off stump.

When Rana sent Cook's off pole flying Kent still needed 31 to make Sussex bat again. But Adams, running back from slip, dropped a simple catch to reprieve last man Joseph and he proceeded to frustrate Sussex for nearly an hour with Patel.

They blazed away as Rana and Mushtaq, even with the new ball, struggled to finish things off.

Both bowlers seemed reluctant to come off and Adams was the most relieved man on the field when Lewry took a superb one-handed catch as he fell backwards at long off to remove Patel and give Mushtaq 10-219 in the match.

Earlier, Sussex's last three wickets had added 45 runs but there was to be no career-best for either Richard Montgomerie or James Kirtley.

Kirtley was out to his second ball of the day without adding to his overnight 51 while Montgomerie's nine-and-a-half hour vigil ended when he checked an attempted pull off Arafat. His 175 came off 454 balls and contained 14 fours.

And when Kent batted again they soon lost skipper Rob Key for the second time in the match to Lewry, leg before a second-ball golden duck - his first for five years.