Sussex produced their best one-day performance of the season at Hove last night to keep alive their hopes of winning the Pro40 League.

A crushing six-wicket win over Northamptonshire Steelbacks took them back into second place but, as skipper Chris Adams acknowledged, the league is Worcestershire's to lose.

How the Sharks might end up regretting defeats against the leaders last month and Essex last Sunday when they squandered winning positions on both occasions.

Not that a crowd of over 4,000 enjoying the last day-nighter of the summer seemed to mind too much about missed opportunities.

Northants were tied down by Sussex's three spinners and only a stand of 65 in 11 overs by left-handers Lance Klusener and Niall O'Brien enabled them to get anything like a competitive total.

On an easy-paced pitch and lightning-fast outfield, a target of 189 was never going to inconvenience Sussex - especially after Luke Wright and Chris Nash had given them a turbo-charged start with a stand of 79 in ten overs.

Wright, in his last domestic one-day innings before he joins up with England's Twenty20 World Cup squad, strengthened his claims for a starting place in South Africa by scoring 45 off just 31 balls.

It was another impressive display of power hitting from the fearless 22-year-old which included a lofted six over long off. Wright was brutal on anything short but the quality of his back-foot play was equally impressive as he stood tall to pierce the off side and collect three of his seven fours.

Richard Logan came in for particular punishment until be cut one back in off the seam and Wright, cramped for room, drilled the ball back into his hands.

Nash lost little in comparison, using his feet to hit crisply down the ground and through the leg side. The only disappointment was that neither went on to make 50, Nash falling two short when he missed a reverse-sweep in off-spinner Jason Brown's first over, having faced 46 balls and hit six boundaries.

In order to improve their run rate Sussex sent in Rana Naved first wicket down which was something of a gamble considering the hit and miss nature of his batting this season.

His previous best one-day score was a modest 21 but once he had hit Nicky Boje for two fours in the South African spinner's first over he settled down and did exactly the job asked of him.

And unlike the openers, Rana did go on to a half-century - his first for the county in one-day cricket - off just 37 balls. There were seven fours and a huge six over the hospitality marquees off Jason Brown. The off-spinner got his revenge in the same over, however, when Rana was well caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary.

Chris Adams fell for a second-ball duck, bowled between his legs by Boje but only 30 more were needed at that stage and there were 10.3 overs unused when Goodwin hit the winning runs.

Northants had suffered a blow before the start when David Sales, their skipper and best batsman, hurt his hamstring in the warm-up, but they should still have made better use of another excellent one-day pitch after stand-in Stephen Peters won the toss.

They were always struggling, however, after Rana bowled Peters and Alex Wakeley with successive deliveries and the middle order were never really able to extricate themselves from the grip imposed by Sussex's spin trio.

Between them Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mike Yardy conceded 95 runs in 23 overs and it was evident that the Steelbacks batsmen rarely get exposure to this sort of quality spin in the second division of the County Championship.

Even Rob White, who top-scored with 56 before becoming the first of two victims for Yardy, found it a struggle while Andrew Crook could barely lay a bat on the ball. His painstakingly-compiled 11 was comprised entirely of singles and took him 32 balls.

Even the dangerous Klusener was unable to cut loose until the quicks came back at the end and he struck 14 off James Kirtley including a six.

Kirtley, in what is likely to be his last competitive game before the World Cup, recovered to have the South African caught at long off in the last over, offering further evidence - if any were needed - that his experience with the white ball at the end of an innings should not be overlooked by England next month.