Sussex are in a strong position to open their Championship campaign with a victory over Middlesex.

The foundations were laid by James Kirtley and the rejuvenated Jason Lewry at Lord's on day two of the County Championship opener.

The pair shared five wickets and leg spinner Mushtaq Ahmed took 3-16 on his debut as Middlesex were polished off for 116 an hour-and-a-half into the second day.

But batting remained a precarious occupation. Heavy cloud cover meant there was help for the quicker bowlers as the ball swung consistently and although Tony Cottey and Tim Ambrose both got out when they looked well set, it needed a composed half-century after tea from Robin Martin-Jenkins to help take Sussex to 194-9 when bad light ended play seven overs early, a lead of 317.

The outcome is likely to be decided by the quality of the respective attacks and, on the evidence so far, Sussex hold a distinct advantage.

After Lewry and Kirtley had ripped the heart out of the Middlesex middle order by taking three wickets in ten balls, Mushtaq came on to mop up the tail. Finishing an innings off was a consistent failure of Sussex last season but, on this evidence, lower order batsmen are going to find the leg spinner just as unfathomable as they did in his Somerset days.

Just as heartening for Sussex was the sight of Lewry back and bowling at something like his best. Figures of 2-34 did not really do him justice but what will please him and his coach Peter Moores is that those runs were conceded at just two an over.

His only success yesterday came when Abdul Razzaq made the fatal mistake of shouldering arms to a ball which swung in late, but he must have lost count of the number of times he beat the bat.

Kirtley had already defeated Ed Joyce with late inswing and he ended Sven Koenig's resistance in similar fashion after the South African had made 43.

Only a slice of luck prevented Chad Keegan from becoming his fourth victim when he got a feint inside edge onto the off stump in Kirtley's next over. Remarkably, both bails were dislodged with one perched precariously on its groove, but neither dropped to the ground as players and umpires crowded round the stumps.

However, Keegan was caught behind pushing forward to Mushtaq's second ball of the day, Paul Weekes was run out by the length of the pitch attempting a single and the innings ended when Ben Hutton was leg off Mushtaq.

Sussex had a lead of 123 but the fact that they could only put together three partnerships of over 35 in their second innings was not entirely due to rustiness.

After Richard Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin had succumbed to the new ball, Cottey and Chris Adams put on 35 either side of a 66 minute stoppage for rain and Middlesex heads were starting to drop.

But Adams fell leg before to a ball from Razzaq while Cottey missed a straight one from Simon Cook after hitting seven boundaries in a fluent 38.

Tim Ambrose was unlucky to be pinned by a ball from Joe Dawes which kept low.

His departure sent the Sussex innings into a tail-spin as Keegan removed Matt Prior, Kevin Innes and Mushtaq in 16 balls at a cost of three runs.

Robin Martin-Jenkins reached the 16th half-century of his career in just over two hours with seven fours before he became the ninth leg before victim of the day after adding 40 with Kirtley for the ninth wicket.