Tremlett's haul puts Warne and Mushtaq in shade

Sussex 252 Hampshire 67-1

This had been billed as the clash of the leg-spinners - Mushtaq Ahmed for Sussex and Shane Warne for Hampshire - and the Championship debut for Hampshire of England's Kevin Pietersen, but Chris Tremlett and Michael Yardy stole the show.

This had been billed as the clash of the leg-spinners - Mushtaq Ahmed for Sussex and Shane Warne for Hampshire - and the Championship debut for Hampshire of England's Kevin Pietersen, but Chris Tremlett and Michael Yardy stole the show.

The 23-year-old, 6ft 7in Hampshire all-rounder, who had recorded a career best 64 with the bat in the opening match - an innings which went a long way to helping his team to victory over Gloucestershire last week - added a personal best with the ball yesterday.

Tremlett's 6 for 44 - only the fourth such significant haul of his career - was instrumental in Sussex's abysmal batting collapse, in which they lost their last seven wickets for the addition of just 18 runs.

Sussex hit back with the wicket of Michael Brown, but had it not been for Yardy their performance would have looked abject.

Yardy had come into this match on the back of successive hundreds against Surrey, the first in the final match of last season, the second last week, and yesterday he proceeded patiently to a third.

"There was not much pace in the wicket and it was difficult to drive off it, so I was just doing what works for me," said the Sussex batsman of his uncomplicated, but effective technique.

He did not look too bad against Warne, and in fact it took a sharp lifter from Tremlett to remove him after more than four hours at the crease, during which time he had managed to inflict a fair amount of damage, first with Murray Goodwin and then with his captain Chris Adams.

Goodwin, who was given a reprieve when he had scored just three, went on to share in a stand of 172 with Yardy for the third wicket, before presenting the Sussex old boy Billy Taylor with his solitary victim.

Yardy powered on, accompanied now by Adams, with whom he added 52, before Warne finally took centre stage, diving athletically to his left to take a brilliant one-handed return catch to account for the Sussex captain.

Matt Prior fell in the Australian's next over and then Tremlett, who impressed director Rod Marsh on successive Academy tours in 2001-02 and 2002-03, mopped up the tail.