Mushtaq Ahmed produced another masterclass to put Sussex firmly in charge of their crucial Championship encounter against Worcestershire.

The leg spinner now has 60 first-class wickets - including 30 in the last month - after spiking Worcestershire's big guns on the second day at Hove as he collected his third successive five-wicket haul.

Crucially, his victims included Graeme Hick who has made a habit of filling his boots against Sussex attacks during his prolific career.

Skipper Chris Adams had engaged his star bowler in animated conversation for a minute or so and if his instructions were to give the next ball some air it worked a treat with Hick obligingly driving a head-high return catch.

Having earlier deceived Ben Smith with a top-spinner, Mushtaq followed Hick's wicket two overs later with that of Vikram Solanki who made the fatal mistake of playing back to a googly.

There was some resistance from Andy Bichel and Gareth Batty but inevitably Mushtaq had the final word, deceiving Batty and Andrew Hall in successive overs before the close. Worcestershire finished 236 behind on 196-8 and facing the prospect of following on today.

Worcestershire had enjoyed a measure of supremacy in the first hour before Sussex's last two wickets put on 98 to take them to maximum batting points for only the sixth time this season.

Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin extended their fifth wicket stand to 144 in 41 overs, but both missed out on hundreds as Andrew Hall picked up three wickets with the second new ball.

Robin Martin-Jenkins failed again, but Mark Davis and James Kirtley came up with timely season's bests. Kirtley hit two sixes and Davis one in a stand of 57 for the ninth wicket before last man Akram reverse-swept Gareth Batty off the last ball of the 130th over to secure a fifth batting point.

The value of those tail-end runs became more apparent when Mushtaq was bewitching more hapless batsmen although this was by no means a one-man show.

Akram produced two classic outswingers to remove Stephen Moore and later Bichel, who put on 51 for the sixth wicket with Batty.