Ajmal Shahzad led the way as Sussex picked up seven wickets before lunch to close in on victory over Worcestershire at Hove.

Worcestershire the final day as slight favourites as they resumed on 47-0, needing a further 200 runs to wrap up their first Championship win of the season.

Shahzad swung the match in Sussex’s favour, however, with three quick wickets as Worcestershire crashed to 69-4 and returned just before lunch to claim another scalp to leave the visitors on 127-7 at lunch.

Worcestershire had moved to 57-0 when Steve Magoffin made the initial breakthrough in the fourth over of the day by trapping Darly Mitchell lbw for 21.

Shahzad then produced a brilliant yorker to bowl first innings centurion Richard Oliver for 27 before removing Alex Gidman and Tom Kohler-Cadmore in the space of three balls.

Shahzad was replaced by Matt Hobden after a spell of 3-19 from seven overs and the youngster put Worcestershire further in trouble by pinning Alex Kervezee lbw for seven.

An excellent morning for Sussex continued when Ashar Zaidi beat the defences of Tom Fell to have him lbw for 21 while Shahzad returned to the attack to demolish Gareth Andrew’s stumps for seven.