Mushtaq takes Sussex to the brink of history

Frizzell County Championship Division One
Table

Sussex 537 and 108 for 3 beat Middlesex 392 and 250 by seven wickets at Hove
Scorecard
Sussex took another giant leap towards the first Championship title in their history by overcoming Middlesex's stiff resistance at Hove. Led by 65 from Paul Weekes, Middlesex added 93 more runs this morning to reach 250, which set Sussex a modest target of 106 to win. Almost inevitably, Mushtaq Ahmed was the bowler to watch: three more wickets today, including the adhesive Weekes, gave him 10 in the match, 99 in the season, and 987 in his career. Sussex knocked off the runs shortly after lunch, for the loss of three wickets, two of them lbw to Middlesex's Australian fast bowler Joe Dawes.

Sussex took the full 22 points from this match, giving them a total of 231, a lead of 18 over Surrey with Lancashire a further 16 behind. Surrey have only one game left, so have a theoretical maximum of 235 points. Lancashire do have two matches left - and the first of those is against Sussex at Old Trafford - but even if they win them both their maximum points total is 241. So the bottom line is that if Sussex collect 11 points from their last two games they will take the title anyway. It could even rain for a fortnight - if Lancashire don't beat Sussex the title is as good as home and hosed at Hove.