Sussex’s bowlers reinforced their position of strength after lunch on the opening day of their Championship clash with Lancashire at Hove.

The visitors – who need to win to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive - continued to lose wickets at regular intervals in the afternoon session as they reached tea on 207-8.

Steve Magoffin picked up two more scalps while there was a wicket apiece for Lewis Hatchett and Ashar Zaidi as Sussex justified skipper Ed Joyce’s decision to put Lancashire in after winning the toss.

Magoffin removed the dangerous Jos Buttler soon after the restart when he tempted the England wicketkeeper into hooking a bouncer straight to Zaidi at square leg.

Hatchett was rewarded for some impressive bowling when he produced another fine ball to have Steven Croft caught behind for 49.

Sussex made their only real mistake of the day when Ed Joyce dropped Tom Smith at third slip off Hatchett but it did not cost them as Smith was caught at deep mid-wicket shortly afterwards sweeping at Zaidi.

At that point Lancashire were 148-7 and in danger of being dismissed for less than 200 but Glen Chapple and Luke Procter added 44 for the eighth wicket.

Chapple finally perished for 28 when he hooked Magoffin to Luke wells at deep square leg while Procter reached tea unbeaten on 26.

The afternoon session backed up Sussex’s work in the morning which saw Magoffin make the initial breakthrough as he trapped Paul Horton lbw for 16 as the opener attempted to turn a straight ball to the leg side.

Hatchett then struck with his fourth ball after being brought into the attack to remove the dangerous Ashwell Prince for a duck. The left-armer got the ball to move away from the South African to find the edge and Mike Yardy took the catch at second slip on his return from injury.

Jordan proved expensive in his opening spell but returned to pick up the wicket of Karl Brown with skipper Ed Joyce taking a superb catch low down at second slip.

That left Lancashire on 34-3 but Khawaja and Steven Croft set about repairing the damage with a partnership of 62. Sussex made sure the morning was emphatically theirs, however, as Zaidi had Khawaja caught behind for 45 just before lunch.