SAJID Mahmood, Liverpool and Sussex are a potent combination. Mix them all up and the fireworks will generally start to fly.

The 25-year-old England pace ace is back in action following a seven-week lay off because of a double hernia operation and is already not far off his best.

Last year he picked up his maiden County Championship five-wicket haul to see off Sussex inside two days at Liverpool's Aigburth ground.

And on Sunday he steamed in to claim his first ever five-for in one-day cricket to demolish Sri Lanka A in a 50-over friendly.

Today, Lancashire will look to set about bridging a 40-point gap to LV Division One leaders Yorkshire when they host Sussex at Liverpool yet again.

"I do enjoy bowling here, and we were just talking about that in the dressing room," he said after removing Sri Lanka Test players Michael Vandort and Kaushal Lokuarachchi to finish with 5-16 from seven overs.

"I just try to put the ball in the right areas, and this ground seems to help me out quite a bit. It would be really good if we could do what we did (against Sussex) last year. But they are a good side, and it's going to be tough.

"All I can do is make sure I repeat what I have done here again. Just put the ball in the right areas - and try to get the wickets that way."Mahmood has readily admitted in the past that he is not a cricket fanatic, not the type of person to sit down and watch a game on the TV when, for example, he is out injured.

He much prefers to sit at home, relax, spend time with the family, listen to music or even go and watch his cousin Amir Khan smack ten bells out of an opponent in the boxing ring.

But while he has been on the rehab trail in and around Old Trafford, the performances of Chris Tremlett and Ryan Sidebottom in the Test match arena haven't failed to escape his attention.

"You see people like Tremlett come through and bowl brilliantly. Some times things do get a bit tough, and you start thinking `I've got to do this, and I've got to do that,'" he added.

Concentrate

"But I have just got to concentrate on what I need to work on. My main aim is to get more consistent. If I do that, then I will take a lot more wickets and go for a lot less runs.

"I am working on that really hard at the moment. By doing that for Lancs we have still got over a month and a half left of cricket then I will hopefully get in contention for a winter tour." Against the Sri Lankans, Mahmood demonstrated perfectly what he is craving on a more regular basis. His best mate in cricket Monty Panesar's favourite phrase sums it up in a nutshell - good areas.

He had one wicket bowled, one caught behind by Luke Sutton, one caught and bowled, and two lbw.

Cricket manager Mike Watkinson described today's wicket at Aigburth as "a damp league pitch that has been rolled as flat as we can get it."Scores of 140 and 105 on Sunday demonstrated that it looks set to be a bowler's game.

If that is the case, then it should suit Mahmood down to the ground as he looks for performances that will catapult him back into the England reckoning.

"If you bang the ball in on county and Test pitches, then you usually get a lot more out of them because they are a lot harder," he added.

"But if you bang the ball in on pitches like this, then they just tend to sit up and are easier to hit so the key is to just put the ball in the right areas, letting the pitch do the work for you."

Andrew Flintoff will be available and, although he will probably play as a batsman only, a bowling return hasn't been ruled out after he came through the game against Sri Lanka A with no after-effects after a 78-day lay-off because of ankle surgery.

And the 29-year-old hasn't ruled out an England return in the one-day series against India.

"I'm not going to get ahead of myself, it'd be great if I could play against India but there's a big job to do for Lancashire first," he said.

"It's not a fitness test, I want to perform for them as well."

Lancs squad: Paul Horton, Mark Chilton (cpt), Mal Loye, Brad Hodge, Stuart Law, Andrew Flintoff, Steven Croft, Luke Sutton, Dominic Cork, Glen Chapple, Tom Smith, Oliver Newby, Sajid Mahmood, Gary Keedy, Muttiah Muralitharan Tweet