Andrew Hodd was counting his bruises today after he defied a high-quality Lancashire attack to keep Sussex's Championship defence on an upward curve.

Hodd was hit several times on the body when he was peppered by Sajid Mahmood's bumper barrage during Sussex's first innings.

But he had to face a totally different challenge on Saturday when Sussex lost four quick wickets to give Lancashire a sniff of victory.

Sussex never showed any interest in chasing a stiff target of 303 in 66 overs and an early finish was on the cards when Richard Montgomerie and Chris Nash put on 93 for the first wicket.

But Nash was leg before to Muralitharan in the 43rd over to spark a mini-collapse as four wickets fell in six overs.

Murray Goodwin became Murali's fourth victim with six overs remaining but Lancashire called off the chase with three overs left, Hodd having produced another defiant little innings of 16 from 53 balls.

While Murali wheeled away at one end, the Lancashire quicks took turns at the other end to once again test the 23-year-old's technique against the short ball.

He said: "It was awesome - that was a Test standard attack and I really enjoyed it.

"The first innings was a real test. Sajid Mahmood was trying to knock my block off at one end and there was Murali at the other. The guys were saying Saturday was the most pressurised sitauation I will face this season and they are probably right.

"But I was quite happy to do a job for the team. I got a few bruises but I didn't want to take the soft option by playing a silly shot and getting out. And if it helps me earn some respect from my team-mates and the opposition then that's great."

Murali, who took his 17th five-for in 22 Championship matches in the first innings, was always going to be the key to Lancashire's hopes on Saturday. He was brought into the attack in the 12th over and apart from one over to switch to the Cromwell Road End, bowled unchanged for the rest of the innings.

Figures of 4-25 from 26 overs, 13 of which were maidens, gave him a match haul of 9-98.

But Nash and Montgomerie gave Sussex another excellent platform and although they rarely broke free of a defensive mindset, there were only a couple of alarms for Nash who was dropped on 15 and 33.

Two and a half hours of defiance ended when Murali trapped him on the back leg while Mike Yardy was caught at short leg two balls later.

Montgomerie pressed on to his second 50 of the season, made off 124 balls with six fours, but soon edged Anderson to the keeper.

And Sussex hearts were starting to flutter when Murali got one to turn and bounce to remove skipper Chris Adams.

There were still 17 overs remaining and another wicket then would have really made it interesting.

But Hodd and Murray Goodwin steadied Sussex nerves with a stand of 27 in 11 overs with Hodd quite happy to take his chances against Murali, even if picking his many variations was infinitely harder than any other challenge he has faced in a brief first-class career.

He added: "I couldn't read it out of his wrist so I was trying to pick him in the air. You can also get an idea of what's coming from the line and the angle he bowls.

"It wasn't easy but I loved it and in the end we saved the game quite comfortably."

The only shame was that a first-day washout meant it was always going to be difficult to get a positive result between two well-matched teams who have enjoyed some great battles in recent years.

Adams said: "I thought it was three brilliant days of intense cricket played at the highest level. It was hard but fair and ended with probably the right result.

"They set us too many, especially when they have the best bowler in the world and I was a bit surprised they went on as long as they did in their second innings before the declaration.

"I thought they might have set us 260 in which case we could have thought about it."

Adams praised the contribution of his youngsters who will only have benefitted from facing such a high-quality attack.

He added: "I thought we coped with Murali well. Guys like Wright and Hodd have come of age in this match by batting in a situation which is as pressurised as it can get. It won't ever get as difficult as that for them in domestic cricket."

Sussex stayed fourth in the table, within striking distance of leaders Yorkshire having played a game more. They have two games before the Twenty20 break and one win would keep their title defence very much alive.