County Championship: Batters dominating between Sussex and Leicestershire

Louis Kimber went past his previous first-class best of 71

Leicestershire produced an impressive response after Sussex racked up 588 on the second day of their County Championship match at Hove.

The Foxes lost Hassan Azad to the first ball of their reply, but Rishi Patel and Louis Kimber batted with increasing authority in an unbroken stand which took them to 159-1 at stumps. They still trail by 429 but a slow pitch is showing little sign of deterioration.

Earlier, Sussex had piled up their highest total for seven years after Ollie Carter, Delray Rawlins and James Coles, the 18-year-old making only his fifth first-class appearance, all scored half-centuries.

Resuming on 407-4, Carter and Rawlins extended their fifth-wicket stand to 119 in 25 overs, although Carter would have been run out on 70 after being called through for a single had Ed Barnes not missed the stumps by millimetres in his follow-through.

Callum Parkinson came into the attack in the 18th over of the day and Rawlins hit his first ball for four to bring up his half-century.

But Parkinson struck in his next over when Carter played on for 75 attempting to dab the ball into the off side. It was a muted end to a fine innings by the in-form 20-year-old, who has scored 422 runs in his last five Championship innings.

Rawlins had mixed aggression - he came down the pitch to drive Barnes over his head for six - with wristy accumulation in his 75 when he was struck on the back leg sweeping at Parkinson, who then persuaded Henry Crocombe to drag a ball from outside off stump to midwicket in his next over.

But Coles added 49 for the last wicket with Sean Hunt, hitting four sixes in his 59 in his maiden first-class fifty before he was beaten in the flight by Parkinson coming down the pitch once more. Parkinson's hard work was rewarded with figures of 5-128 from 41.5 overs, while 61 extras swelled the Sussex total.

Steven Finn, captaining Sussex after Tom Haines broke his hand on Monday, made an immediate impact when Azad was caught at slip off a ball which did just enough off the seam to take the edge.

But Patel and Kimber got their heads down to negotiate the new ball, although they both offered half-chances.

Rawlins got fingertips to a fiercely-struck straight drive by Patel diving to his left and Coles could not quite hold on running in at full stretch from deep square leg when Kimber mistimed a pull off Crocombe on 48.

Once the new ball lost its hardness, though, batting became much more straightforward and at stumps Kimber was in sight of his maiden first-class hundred, having already reached a career-best 91 while Patel passed fifty for the third time in his career.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.