Mushtaq Ahmed tormented Warwickshire for the second day running as Sussex emerged as genuine Championship contenders at Hove.

The little leg spinner now has 52 first-class wickets after taking 7-85 as Sussex wrapped up their first victory over the Bears since 1991 with just over a day to spare.

All this on a pitch offering just modest turn. Instead Warwickshire's bewitched and bemused batsmen succumbed to his wiles in the same way as countless county batsmen already this season, Following on 344 behind, the visitors were dismissed for 285 in their second innings to lose by an innings and 59 runs.

After years of bending the knee to Warwickshire, the victory beers in the home dressing room would have slipped down nicely last night.

And after winning their fourth Championship match out of seven to move above Lancashire into second place, Sussex can now consider themselves as a credible threat to Surrey's recent domination of the Championship.

Mushtaq, of course, has made a phenomenal impact but what was perhaps more unexpected, but a welcome sight nevertheless for Sussex supporters, was the impressive support provided by Mushy's fellow twirler Mark Davis yesterday.

This is only the third four-day game the pair have played together and while there was a certain inevitability that Mushtaq would claim his fifth five-wicket haul of the season, the value of the two wickets claimed by his team-mate should not be underestimated.

Skipper Michael Powell and Nick Knight put conditions in perspective in a first wicket stand of 135 which at least suggested that Warwickshire would extend the game into a fourth day.

They even played Mushtaq with a fair degree of comfort until the ninth over after lunch when Matt Prior showed wicketkeeper's reflexes to hold a bat-pad catch at silly point after Knight had struck nine fours in his 64.

With the breakthrough made, it was not too much of a surprise that Mushtaq struck again in successive overs.

Mark Wagh succumbed in identical fashion to Knight and then Powell fell to the classical Mushtaq dismissal - caught at slip off a leg break which turned and bounced. Powell, who made a century at Hove last season, had faced 136 balls for his 80, hitting 11 fours and a six.

Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, who scored a debut century when Warwickshire won at Edgbaston last month, dug in for 19 overs without ever suggesting they would build a partnership which would give their side hope of extending their amazing winning run against Sussex.

Bell pottered around for 20 overs for his first five runs and while Trott showed more attacking inclination he made the fatal mistake of sweeping at a straight one in Davis' second over back at the Cromwell Road end midway through the afternoon session.

Tony Frost survived a close leg before shout from James Kirtley before he had scored but in Davis' next over he was lured into driving at a ball which was floated up and bowled through the gate.

No wonder Davis wheeled away in delight before being mobbed by team-mates who sensed that as well as ending their Warwickshire hoodoo they might earn themselves an extra day off in the process.

If the summer remains dry Sussex are likely to rely on their twin spin threat even more. That is hard on someone like Kevin Innes, who was left out for this game despite some consistent Championship performances, but three seamers should be able to do the job, especially if Chris Adams is able to use them sparingly in short spells while Mushtaq and Davis wheel away on increasingly responsive pitches.

One of the seamers, Jason Lewry, got in on the act, but only in the 90th over and by then Mushtaq had taken his haul for the season to 50 with two more wickets after tea.

Robin Martin-Jenkins took a sprawling catch at mid on after Bell had laboured for over two hours for his 31 before mis-timing a drive then Dougie Brown, who lofted Davis for two sixes over long on and mid-wicket was snaffled at slip off another big-spinning leg break.

Adams, who had dropped Collins Obuya, in Lewry's previous over, hung on to another big nick in the left-armer's next to end Mel Betts' well organised resistance, and it was left to Mushy to wrap up the tail before he led off the team to a standing ovation.

Waqar Younis skied a reverse-sweep to backward point and it was all over shortly after 6pm when Alan Richardson edged his first ball to Tim Ambrose to give Mushtaq his 11th wicket of the match.

Warwickshire's last two first innings wickets had added just seven runs in 11 balls at the start of the day before they were dismissed after collecting a solitary batting bonus point.

Tim Ambrose, keeping in a Championship match for the first time since Sussex won promotion to Division One at Edgbaston in September 2001, pulled off an outstanding catch down the leg side off Kirtley to remove Waqar and Richardson lost his off stump to the first ball he faced from Mushtaq.

Less then seven hours later history was repeating itself for the visitors' No. 11 and Sussex had finally laid their Warwickshire bogey to rest in spectacular style.