John Crawley believes that Mushtaq Ahmed is the biggest threat to Hampshire's chances of a first championship title in 33 years.

Pakistani duo Rana Naved and Mushtaq have bowled Sussex to the top of the championship and the C & G South Conference with their seam and leg spin combination.

Naved will be joining the Pakistan squad soon but Crawley believes that Sussex will be a threat all season because of the number of wickets that Mushtaq has taken already this year.

Crawley said: "Sussex are a well balanced side, they get runs on the board, they have some good batters and they revolve around those two when they bowl.

"Rana is a very good cricketer but Mushtaq still takes heaps of wickets, more than he should do in many ways.

"You can't take that away from him, but I don't know whether the guys that are batting against him are playing to the right game plan.

"He's a very fine performer but he shouldn't be getting five wickets a game at this time of year."

A fascinating duel between two world-class leg spinners is beginning to take place on the south coast.

Mushtaq took 4-92 as Middlesex were bowled out for 266 yesterday, and now has 36 championship wickets at 16.77 this season.

Meanwhile, Warne recorded 4-68 for Hampshire against Yorkshire and has 23 at 14.39, having missed the first two games of the season.

Crawley added: "They're very different types of bowlers but the figures show that Warney is far more effective at Test level as well as first-class level, whereas Mushy has been relegated to first-class level."