Mushtaq Ahmed may still be struggling to learn Sussex By The Sea, the unofficial anthem which is sung by the team after every victory.

But if he maintains the level of performance which has brought him 28 wickets in four Championship matches then you can bet he will be word-perfect by the end of the season.

The Pakistani leg-spinner produced the best figures by a Sussex slow bowler since 1996 at Horsham on Saturday as the county wrapped up a ten-wicket win over Nottinghamshire to move into third place in the first division table.

He followed his 6-136 in the first innings with 6-81 as Nottinghamshire lost six wickets in the first hour and were bowled out for 247.

Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie knocked off the 50 runs needed to secure their second Championship win of the season just before tea.

At this rate Mushtaq is on course to become the first Sussex bowler since 1967 to take 100 wickets in a season. Remember that his success so far has largely been achieved on early season pitches with the added handicap of an infected finger which is only now starting to heal properly.

He is also developing a lethal partnership with James Kirtley who took the other four Nottinghamshire second innings wickets.

Kirtley now has 25 wickets and the only concern for skipper Chris Adams must be that between them they have taken 53 of the 73 wickets so far as well as bowling 59 per cent of the overs.

It made sense for Sussex to rest Mushtaq for yesterday's National League game with an important C&G Trophy tie and a trip to Championship leaders Surrey coming up later in the week.

He bowled 67 overs at Horsham on a slow pitch which demanded all his powers of concentration. Fortunately for Sussex he responded readily to the challenge and is already proving to be a very shrewd choice as second overseas player.

"That's as well as I've seen a spinner bowl in English conditions," said Adams. "The delivery which got Bilal Shafayat out (a googly which went through the gate and knocked out middle stump) was something Shane Warne would have been proud of."

Mushtaq is clearly relishing the belief in his ability shown by Adams, the coaching staff and his team-mates and still feels he can bowl even better.

"The pitch was very slow I needed to show a lot of patience and wait for the batsmen to make mistakes," he said.

"We knew that even if we only got three wickets in the first session we could still win the game. As it was we got six, but as a bowler you feel great when you know the coaches, Chris and my team-mates have faith in me.

"I know there is more to come from me as well. I don't set targets, but I know that if I work hard, am honest with myself and my team-mates then 90 per cent of the time I will take wickets and perform well."

The match swung decisively Sussex's way during the first hour of the final day when Mushtaq and Kirtley shared six wickets between them in 14 overs for the addition of just 40 runs. Yet the pitch hadn't suddenly started to misbehave. In fact, with the sun out, batting conditions were the best they had been all week.

Nottinghamshire simply couldn't cope with the threat being posed at both ends. The pumped-up Kirtley got things moving with a superb catch off his own bowling high above his head to remove Darren Bicknell before having Usman Afzaal caught behind.

Mushtaq snared Jason Gallian at bat-pad and then took the key wicket of Kevin Pietersen, who'd made 166 in the first innings, thanks to a geat slip catch by the diving Tony Cottey to intercept a sliced drive. Guy Welton was stumped following a reckless charge down the pitch and Shafayat completely bamboozled by the googly.

Steve Elworthy and Chris Read put on 94 in 24 overs either side of lunch to give Notts hope that they could still save themselves. There was rain about, but the dark clouds seemed to drift beyond Denne Hill, just as the indefatigable Dr John Dew, the doyen of Horsham week, had predicted at the start of the day.

Mushtaq switched to round the wicket to have Elworthy caught behind after the South African had equalled his career-best 45 in possibly his last first-class appearance and in the next over Read played across a delivery from Kirtley which kept a shade low.

Ambrose's quick thinking and quick hands enabled him to stump Andy Harris and give Mushtaq his sixth wicket while Kirtley finished things off when Stuart MacGill top-edged an attempted pull.

What Sussex need now is for some of their other bowlers to starting backing up the performances of Mushtaq and Kirtley.

Billy Taylor bowled tidily and should keep his place at The Oval, but Robin Martin-Jenkins looks out of sorts at the moment and there is a case for giving Kevin Innes, fresh from his maiden century, the chance to fill the all-rounder role in what will be Sussex's toughest match of the season.

Sussex (22 pts) beat Nottingham (7 pts) by 10 wickets