Mushtaq Ahmed took his tally of Championship wickets to 75 with four Lancashire victims on a compelling second day in the battle between second and third at Hove.

Stuart Law, who fell four runs short of completing a third successive hundred against Sussex, and Carl Hooper were among the sping wizard's victims before Lancashire reached 351-8, still 34 behind, to leave the contest evenly poised going into the last two days.

With Surrey stretching their lead at the top to 20 points after completing victory over Nottinghamshire inside three days, a draw is not much use to either of their closest challengers.

After he was criticised for being too cautious when the Surrey match ended in stalemate, Sussex skipper Chris Adams will have to time any declaration well, assuming his team-mates can put him in the position to dictate terms when they bat again.

The ace up his sleeve is undoubtedly Mushtaq who will fancy of chances of even richer pickings on a wearing fourth day pitch. There was some slow turn to assist him yesterday, but as usual it was his variety which kept the batsmen guessing, particularly when he deliberately pushed his leg spinner through quicker.

He broke through before lunch when Iain Sutcliffe was snapped up at silly point after putting on 99 for the first wicket with Mark Chilton.

After coming to terms with the slow surface, Law moved effortlessly through the gears during the afternoon and when Hooper joined him, after Chilton had top-edged a paddle sweep off Mark Davis, everyone in another good crowd sensed the match had reached a critical stage.

There was time for Hooper to hit four sublime boundaries but the Australian-West Indian axis was broken after just 23 minutes when Mushtaq took a return catch at the second attempt as Hooper got a leading edge aiming to deposit him over mid-wicket.

Chris Schofield lost his leg stump in Mushtaq's next over and at 192-5 there was suddenly the prospect that Lancashire might have to follow on.

But Glenn Chapple, who has made two Championship centuries this season, overcame a shaky start to help Law put on 97 in 34 overs for the sixth wicket. Like everyone else, Law had his problems picking Mushtaq but he dealt ruthlessly with the slightest indiscretion in line or length by the Sussex bowlers, particularly when he pulling anything short with brutal power and sublime timing in the area between mid-wicket and mid on.

Another century against Sussex seemed to be his for the taking so it was a surprise, not least to Law himself, when he offered a bat-pad catch to short leg to give Mushtaq his fourth success after facing 162 balls and hitting 11 of them to the boundary.

The day wasn't all about Mushtaq or Law for that matter. Billy Taylor bowled with sustained hostility at the start and later with the second new ball to take three wickets including Chapple after he'd made a vigilant 54.

By the close Mushtaq had bowled 43 overs, but his workload is likely to be even greater this weekend.