Dwayne Smith took a hat-trick as part of a four-wicket over as reigning champions Sussex Sharks extended their lead at the top of the Pro40 with a 152-win over Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Hove.

The 26-year-old Barbados-born all-rounder removed Bilal Shafayat, Kevin O'Brien and Jake Ball with the last three balls of his third over - the 15th of the innings - having already had Alex Hales brilliantly caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd off the first ball of the over.

It was sensational stuff by Bajan Smith, who triggered Outlaws' collapse when he yorked Australian Adam Voges for one.

Shafayat was caught at short fine-leg, O'Brien walked in front of a straight one and Ball, on his one-day debut, was like a rabbit caught in the headlights as Smith trimmed his off bail.

Nottinghamshire made a decent start in their pursuit of a target of 255, despite the early departure of acting captain Matt Wood who was deceived by Chad Keegan's slower ball.

Akhil Patel, also making his one-day debut for the Outlaws, and Hales took the score to 67 in the 12th over when Patel was mis-timed a drive at Robin Martin-Jenkins' first ball to begin an astonishing collapse which saw six wickets fall for six runs in 24 balls.

There was no hope for Nottinghamshire at 73 for seven and Smith finished with six for 29 when he bowled Alex Carter as the Outlaws were dismissed for 102, their last nine wickets having fallen for 35 runs in 9.1 overs.

Earlier the Sharks made 254 after being put in against a Nottinghamshire team missing several of their established players.

The innings got off to a flying start thanks to Rory Hamilton-Brown who smashed 49 off just 27 balls with six fours and three sixes in an opening stand of 103 with Ed Joyce.

That proved to be the highest score of the innings as all of Sussex's top six got starts but no-one was able to see their side to an even bigger total.

They were pegged back by Voges who picked up Joyce for 42 with his first ball and finished with three for 25 with his left-arm chinamen. Murray Goodwin (39) gave him a simple return catch and Smith, who had struck two sixes out of the ground in the previous over from Samit Patel, sliced a drive to backward point for 27.

Patel removed Mike Yardy (34) and Martin-Jenkins (three) with successive deliveries in the penultimate over while Sussex's cause wasn't helped by the needless run outs of Piyush Chawla and Hodd.

Sussex now top the table by three points, although they can be overhauled by Somerset if the Sabres win their three games in hand, the first of which is against Essex on Tuesday.

Worcestershire are also still in the title race.