Mushtaq Ahmed celebrated the best bowling performance in the history of Twenty20 cricket today and declared: "I was just having some fun."

Sussex's brilliant leg-spinner had a 4,200 crowd at Hove on their feet last night after taking 5-11 as the Sharks crushed Essex Eagles by nine wickets in their opening game in the south group.

After bowling Andy Flower in his first over he removed Grant Flower and James Foster in his second before wrapping up the Essex innings for 109 with the wickets of Nick Thornicroft and Danish Kaneria, his leg-spinning successor in the Pakistan team.

Sussex cruised to victory thanks to an unbeaten 66 from Matt Prior in just 14.4 overs, but the night belonged to Mushy.

He said: "You have to enjoy Twenty20 cricket and that's what I was doing, having some fun.

"Batsmen can easily get after your bowling so in a sense you have nothing to lose. That means you relax and when I'm relaxed I'm a better bowler."

Essex looked like posting a competitive total before losing their last six wickets for 25 runs.

"It was certainly one of the highlights of my Sussex career," added Mushtaq. "But I must give credit to the whole team. We have raised our performances in one-day cricket this season and the hard work is paying off."

Skipper Chris Adams was delighted after his team made a winning start for the first time in the competition's brief history.

He said: "I'm sure the crowd enjoyed themselves and the atmosphere was fantastic again. It couldn't have gone any better for us, it was an excellent performance in so many ways."

Sussex will play their second group match against Hampshire tomorrow in front of a 10,000 sell-out crowd at the Rose Bowl as Mushtaq comes up against Shane Warne.

"It's another day and another game," said Mushtaq. "But we're hoping for a repeat performance."