Sussex, the champions, moved into second place in the table with their first victory of the season and sit 14 points behind Nottinghamshire, who lost their last five wickets before lunch yesterday. Corey Collymore, the game's outstanding bowler, took three more wickets to finish with match figures of eight for 107, but on an uneven pitch the decisive contributions came from the bat of Matt Prior, whose innings of 131 and 64 were the highest of the game.

Having been dumped by England after their tour to Sri Lanka, Prior is now the leading first-class run-scorer in the country with 582 runs at 52.90 and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain, believes he could regain his England place, even as a specialist batsman.

“I believe he could comfortably bat either five or six for England. He has a Test average above 40 and he's playing even better now than the last time he played for us,” he said.

Prior was dropped by England because of his faulty glovework. He briefly considered giving up wicketkeeping, but he kept tidily here, taking one spectacular leg-side catch on Thursday evening to dismiss Samit Patel. “I think Matthew took a lot in this game from watching how Chris Read goes about his job and last night he was magnificent,” Adams said. “That's the challenge for him, to keep that consistency up.”

Read has also been in fine form with the bat this season and yesterday morning, his sixth-wicket stand of 78 with Graeme Swann threatened to bring Nottinghamshire back into the game. But once Read had been caught at short leg off Mushtaq Ahmed for 56, the wickets started to tumble. Graeme Swann fell in the next over, swishing irresponsibly at Collymore.

That left the home side requiring 123 from their last three wickets, not quite an impossible task with all-rounders such as Mark Ealham and Paul Franks to come. But with Collymore bowling with seam and bounce from one end and Mushtaq Ahmed at the other, looking less rusty than in the first innings, Sussex were firmly in control.

When Ealham cut limply to slip, the game was up and Collymore completed the last rites by dismissing Charlie Shreck. Nottinghamshire may still be top of the table, but Sussex are now starting to find their stride. If Collymore can continue his fine form and Mushtaq recovers his sharpness after three weeks out with knee surgery, they will look a formidable side once again.

Sussex: First Innings 277 (M J Prior 131), Second Innings 259 (M J Prior 64)

Nottinghamshire: First Innings 251 (M A Wagh 54, A C Voges 53; C D Collymore 4 for 47)

Second Innings (overnight 114-5)

W I Jefferson c Prior b Collymore 1
M J Wood b Lewry 9
M A Wagh c Hopkinson b Lewry 8
A C Voges lbw b Martin-Jenkins 30
S R Patel c Prior b Wright 11
C M W Read c Hopkinson b Mushtaq 56
G P Swann c Adams b Collymore 41
M A Ealham c Wright b Collymore 11
P J Franks not out 30
D J Pattinson lbw b Mushtaq 9
C E Shreck c Adams b Collymore 0
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 3) 6
Total (56 overs) 212

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-11, 3-25, 4-42, 5-81, 6-159, 7-163, 8-188, 9-203.

Bowling: Lewry 12-0-43-2; Collymore 22-5-60-4; Wright 4-0-21-1; Mushtaq 13-1-63-2; Martin-Jenkins 5-0-22-1.

Umpires: A A Jones and P J Hartley.