ISLAMABAD, May 26: Pakistani Test off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq continues to shine for Surrey which still heads the points table in the English County Cricket Championship.

Surrey eased away from the chasing pack with an unflustered 258-run victory over Essex at Chelmsford over the weekend.

After declaring on their overnight 381 for 7, Surrey had left Essex an academic target of 506 for victory, or more realistically, three sessions to survive.

But Jimmy Ormond quickly ruined that prospect, taking five of the first seven wickets to fall, and although James Foster and Aftab Habib delayed the inevitable with a fifth-wicket stand of 119, the spinners Ian Salisbury and Saqlain Mushtaq swept away the tail with maximum efficiency.

Another Pakistani to dazzle in the current English county season was former Test leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed who captured 6-81 as Sussex 619-7 dec and 52-0 beat Nottinghamshire( 421 and 247) by 10 wickets .

Mushtaq Ahmed took his season’s first-class wicket tally to 28 with another impressive display in Sussex’s 10-wicket win against Notts. Notts crashed from 103 for 0 to 247 all out.

England’s reject, James Kirtley, took the other four wickets to fall, and set the tone for the day when he had Darren Bicknell caught and bowled before any runs had been added.

Chris Read (42) and Steve Elworthy (45) provided some resistance, but Sussex required only 50 runs in their second innings, and it took Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie just over 10 overs to get there.

Sussex jump from seventh from third in the table.—APP