Sussex produced a fine combined effort with the ball to reduce Hampshire to 131-5 in reply to their own 426 on the second day of the match at Arundel.

Ollie Rayner, frontline spinner in the absence of the injured Mushtaq Ahmed, claimed the important wickets of Sean Ervine and John Crawley.

And with three of Sussex's seamers all claiming a wicket each, the visitors were in danger of having to follow on.

Earlier Murray Goodwin, resuming on 116, went on to lodge a marathon 184.

He faced 336 balls in all as bottom-of-the-table Hampshire struggled with both bat and ball on Thursday.

At one stage on the first day, reigning champs Sussex were 25-4, but they ultimately secured maximum batting points.

Goodwin, picking up on day two with Sussex 316-5, was finally ninth out as his side were dismissed 15 minutes after lunch.

Hampshire openers Michael Brown and Michael Carberry then fell with only 14 on the board - Brown losing his leg stump to Corey Collymore for a duck and Carberry edging Jason Lewry to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.

Michael Lumb was then pinned in front by a straight delivery from Ragheb Aga before the tall off-spinner Rayner took his two wickets.

Ervine was disappointed to be given out after edging Rayner to slip where skipper Chris Adams claimed a catch that he flicked up off his boot.

Crawley batted attractively to reach 70 before prodding at a ball of extra bounce from Rayner and Adams held onto the catch over his head at slip.