LONDON, May 25: Pakistani bowling duo Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Navedul Hasan put on a stunning tandem act to rush Sussex to victory within two days of their English County Championship match with clueless Durham.

The pair took 19 wickets – Mushtaq taking five in each innings – as Sussex won the match by an innings and 39 runs inside five sessions.

Durham had looked to be repairing some of the damage from their first innings total of 110 as they reached 47-0 trying to pass Sussex’ first innings total of 229 and set a daunting target for the visitors.

However, the peerless Mushtaq shattered their fragile morale by breaking the opening partnership and from then on they met little resistance.

The only positive thing to come from the game was the bowling performance by England paceman Steve Harmison, who showed he will be raring to go for the Test series with Pakistan or even the final Test with Sri Lanka.

The 27-year-old, who has just returned to frontline action after several months absence with a shin injury suffered two months ago on the tour of India, took 4-19 in 11 overs but in the end his performance paled into insignificance set aside those of Sussex’ duo.

Scores and result on Wednesday:

County Championship:

Division One:

At The Rose Bowl: HAMPSHIRE 72-4 v KENT.

At Old Trafford: NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 201-7 (C.M.W. Read 53) v LANCASHIRE.

At Lord's: MIDDLESEX 255-3 (E. Smith 120 not out, O.A. Shah 73) v WARWICKSHIRE.

At Chester-le-Street: Sussex (18pts) beat Durham (3pts) by an innings and 39 runs.

DURHAM 110 (Mushtaq Ahmed 5-25, Rana Navedul Hasan 4-28) and 80 (Mushtaq Ahmed 5-12, Rana Navedul Hasan 5-42); SUSSEX 229 (S.J. Harmison 4-43).

Division Two:

At Northampton: NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 130-4 v DERBYSHIRE.

At Taunton: LEICESTERSHIRE 132-4 v SOMERSET.

At Chelmsford: GLOUCESTERSHIRE 396 (I.J. Harvey 114, C.G. Taylor 66, W.P.C. Weston 62); ESSEX 172-3 (V Chopra 80 not out).

At Worcester: GLAMORGAN 239 (M.J. Cosgrove 61; Zaheer Khan 4-65); WORCESTERSHIRE 68-1.—AFP