Sussex stepped up their treble bid when they moved into second place in the NatWest Pro40 division one with a seven-wicket win against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

After collecting the C&G Trophy at Lord's on Saturday, they coasted past Durham's 154-8 with 13.4 overs to spare, with Richard Montgomerie making 71 off 76 balls.

Sussex, joint championship leaders with Lancashire, are now one point behind leaders Essex with a game in hand.

Chris Adams asked Durham to bat and they were quickly reduced to 4-2 then 10-3 with James Kirtley taking two of the wickets to go with his five at Lord's on Saturday.

On a slow pitch, Gordon Muchall chipped Yasir Arafat tamely to mid-on before Jimmy Maher drove at Kirtley and edged to slip.

The crucial blow came when home skipper Dale Benkenstein pushed forward and edged a good ball from Kirtley to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

After a miserly spell of 8-4-10-0 from Robin Martin-Jenkins, Durham rebuilt through a fifth-wicket stand of 61 between Gary Scott and Gareth Breese.

Sixes In the absence of the rested Mushtaq Ahmed, they began to prosper against Luke Wright and 19-year-old left-arm spinner Tom Smith, whose only previous senior appearance was in a Twenty20 match.

Scott drove Smith over long-on for six on his way to 36 before being bowled going for a leg-side hit off the spinner, while Breese went on to complete only his second half-century in three seasons in the one-day league.

He failed to improve on the 52 he made against Middlesex at the Riverside two years ago, caught at short fine leg immediately after reaching 50 off 70 balls.

The only time runs flowed was when Phil Mustard, coming in at 101-5 in the 32nd over, smashed two sixes in making 25 off 15 balls.

He greeted Kirtley's return with a four and six to long-on, but then drove a fierce return catch to Smith and Kirtley yorked Callum Thorp to finish with three for 27.

Prior got the reply off to a swift start, driving Neil Killeen over long-on for six before the next ball nipped away to bowl him.

That brought in 23-year-old Chris Nash, deputising for Michael Yardy, who was on England duty, and the Loughborough graduate took advantage of some modest bowling to hit seven fours in making 32 off 24 balls.

He fell lbw to Thorp but at 97 for two in the 15th over Montgomerie was able to pick off the runs at will and it was a surprise when he chipped Scott's off-spin to mid-wicket with only 12 needed.

Sussex are back in Pro40 League action tonight when they face Northamptonshire Steelbacks under lights at Northampton (4.40pm).