Sussex have been embarrassed by Scotland's part-time cricketers before but there was never much chance of a repeat at Hove yesterday.

The Saltires enjoyed one of their best victories in their three years in the totesport League when they successfully chased 270 two years ago thanks to a hundred from Jon Kent and a half-century from Rahul Dravid.

But the Sharks were in ruthless mood yesterday, bowling out the Scots for 132 before racing to their target with seven wickets in hand in the 24th over.

A tenth victory of the campaign stretched their lead at the top of the second division to six points ahead of what is sure to be a much sterner test against Surrey Lions under the Hove lights tonight (4.10pm) when Ian Ward should be fit to face his former county.

All the teams right down to sixth-placed Somerset Sabres are still in with a chance of filling the promotion places. But Sussex have played the five sides immediately below them twice and two more wins will definitely be enough to secure a top-three finish.

And because of their superior run rate and the fact that so many of their rivals still have to play each other a win over their old rivals this evening should do it.

This latest success was all fairly routine, the highlight being a spectacular burst by Rana Naved who took three wickets in his last over on his way to a competition-best 5-30.

Rana trimmed Craig White's off bail with the first ball of the penultimate over before yorking Paul Hoffman with the next.

Ross Lyons kept out the hat-trick ball and scrambled a leg bye off the fourth but Jon Beukes had no answer to another inswinging yorker which flattened his off stump.

It was hardly surprising that the Scots' tail-enders struggled to cope when the Pakistani slipped through the gears but Beukes had been in for the best part of two hours for his 51 yet even he had little chance as the ball curved towards his poles.

There was a bit of assistance in the pitch for the seamers and Chris Adams had no hesitation in giving his attack first use of it. But apart from a partnership of 66 in 15 overs between skipper Beukes and Cedric English for the fourth wicket the Saltires struggled to master an accurate attack.

James Kirtley's action may be under scrutiny again but it was typical of his professionalism that he carried on as normal. The yorker which crashed into Sheikh Qasim's stumps - fast, accurate and swinging late - was a classic response.

Mushtaq Ahmed was smote over mid-wicket for six by Beukes but the other batsmen struggled to read him while the highlight of Sussex's fielding display was a steepling catch by Luke Wright to remove Ryan Watson which he somehow juggled five times before it was safely pouched.

Sussex's victory was never in doubt, it was merely a case of how long they would take to knock off the runs.

Matt Prior set a predictable tone, racing to his seventh half-century of the season off just 38 balls with 42 of his runs coming in boundaries.

Australian Hoffman, the mainstay of Scotland's bowling attack, returned to have him caught down the leg side for a 50-ball 69 which included 13 fours and a six while medium pacer Sean Weeraratna will have something to tell his mates back at Heriots CC in Edinburgh after dismissing Chris Adams, who spooned a drive to extra cover, and Murray Goodwin, caught at square leg, in the same over to claim his first wickets in the competition.

But Sussex had barely used half their allocation when Mike Yardy hit the winning runs off Lyons and the kids' games which followed on the outfield were only slightly less one-sided than the main event.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005