Farhan Ahmed - a generational talent keeping it real for Notts

It was 10 overs into Sussex's second innings that Farhan Ahmed took the ball from the Stuart Broad End. Glint of opportunity in his eyes, dark mop of hair bouncing as he marked his run-up, he looked every bit a cartoon fish embarking on a grand adventure.

You cannot get further from animated japery than an early season County Championship match, even if it is between the two surprising and flawed main protagonists of Division One so far. The cloud cover means the colours don't pop, and, here, the white sheets covering the Trent Bridge pavilion during its renovations dull any whimsy to riff upon.

Then there's the threateningly short 50-yard boundary to our protagonists' left, the hard place to be pushed up against by the rocks of an entirely southpaw visiting top four. Two of the rock-steadiest, Tom Haines and Daniel Hughes, were already squeezing, exchanging nine fours in a steady unbeaten 50, munching through Nottinghamshire's first innings lead of 131.

What of friends to make along the way? At this juncture, struggling. Brett Hutton, the resident warlock, peak of his powers with 4 for 53 on day one, had gone off four balls into the previous over at the end Farhan was now to occupy. With only two seamers left on the park in Fergus O'Neill - already five overs deep into his work - and Josh Tongue, a lot would be required of the 17-year-old offspinner whose cursory seven overs on day one - 1 for 19 - had been somewhat carefree. As they should be at that age.

Fast forward 34 overs, well into the second act of this production, and our plucky fish was not simply alive and thriving, but treacherous for his own means. Sussex were stuttering on 138 for 5, scoring curtailed, batters prised out, ahead by just seven. Farhan's uninterrupted spell of 17 overs - 11 of them up to tea - had come to an end. But his impact had been huge, his efforts far more than lovable, but a perfect distillation of the multi-purpose benefits a spinner brings when they know exactly what needs to be done, and how they are going to do it.

He did not just take the first two of Sussex's seven Saturday wickets - Hughes caught behind, then No.3 Tom Clark trapped in front in the space of nine balls. He brought a level of control that turned captain Haseeb Hameed's anxiety about juggling his now scarce seam options into a luxury now that he only needed to worry about the Radcliffe Road End.

Able to focus on himself, O'Neil banked his first wicket of the match in his second spell, trapping Tom Alsop lbw. A high-calibre second followed nine balls after tea when sticking his right-hand out in his follow-through around the wicket for a stunning catch off a flowing Haines drive.

Haines, by then, had 64, a fourth fifty-plus score in his last five innings, with a third century seemingly in the offing to make amends for his two-ball duck yesterday. A lashed cut over cover point, into the PKF Smith Cooper Stand on the short side, took him to 53 from 65 deliveries, and past 500 for the season already.

He had been dropped by Joe Clarke at first slip off O'Neil on 34. And it is not hard to surmise that Haines's keeness to crack on in the evening, which allowed the Australian to finally get his man, was because he was not getting much change from the kid at the other end. Ben Duckett, scooping low to his left at second slip, removed Ollie Carter for O'Neil's third, by which point Sussex were five down and still six behind.

That was the final dismissal during Farhan's mammoth stint. By the time he had been given the "that'll do for now" by Hameed, his 2 for 45 had brought Nottinghamshire back into the ascendancy. The frugality of it all - conceding only four boundaries in those first 17, and just two to the leg side when skipper John Simpson arrived to sweep firmly behind square in the offspinner's last two overs - meant the lower order dart for runs did not really shift the dial.

Tongue, having replaced the offie, was well-rested enough to find movement with a 48-over-old Dukes to remove James Coles lbw. The more senior spinner Liam Patterson-White - even if this was his first appearance of the season to Farhan's fourth - snuck one under Fynn Hudson-Prentice's bat and into his stumps. Even Hutton had time to shake off cramp and a neural issue to rejoin the attack late in the day.

By the time Farhan returned for two more overs at the dregs of day two, Simpson had found a valuable ally in Jack Carson, whose resolute unbeaten 21 in a stand of 28 does represent a sliver of hope. They lead by 64. A sharp turner past Simpson's edge - the first to really go big - was a nod to what the spinner might get up to tomorrow.

Make no mistake, this remains a seamer's pitch, which is another feather in Farhan's cap. After all, we're at Trent Bridge in April. Even before Farhan made his appearances, the sharks of Jayden Seales and Ollie Robinson wreaked havoc. The Test duo, averages a lowly 22 at that level, are a big reason why we are the best part of three innings through this fixture inside two days.

They hacked away at Nottinghamshire's strong first innings position of 164 for 3 at the start of play - five away from parity - splitting six morning wickets between them. Nottinghamshire's eventual grind to 300 thanks to cameos from Patterson-White (42) and Tongue (39) went some way to regaining that dominance, spitting on Robinson and Seales' graft in the process. By the end of it all, the respective four-fors for the Englishman and West Indian came from a combined 45 overs of the 68.3 Sussex sent down.

Both Robinson (from the Radcliffe Road End) and Seales (Stuart Broad End) began with eight-over stints that elicited a collapse of 5 for 43. Seales, struggling with a stomach issue on Friday, showed the benefit of a night's rest when he shaved Jack Haynes' edge with his first ball of day two.

Once Robinson had removed Haseeb Hameed for 85 with a quality delivery that finally lured the home skipper into a misjudgment - the result of movement in, pitching full but not full enough for a push - both ends were opened. And when O'Neill and Hutton were seen off with ease, 210 for 8 spoke of shifting sands.

Though the 90 more runs added kept Sussex uncertain under foot, the opening stand between Hughes and Haines was on its way to wiping the slate clean. That they haven't got away with it is not down to some pesky kid, but an English offspinner beyond his years, marrying control and responsibility.

There was nothing cartoonish about it, just a generational talent doing it for real.