County Championship: Rishi Patel and Liam Trevaskis knocks help Foxes start solidly against Sussex

Rishi Patel (left) and Peter Handscombe (right) shared a stand of 78 for the fourth wicket against Sussex on the opening day

Leicestershire saw three batters make half-centuries as they finished day one of their County Championship Division Two clash with Sussex on 326-8 after losing the toss at Grace Road.

Rishi Patel - who made 1,075 Championship runs last summer - hit 12 fours and two sixes in a fluid 87, Australia's Peter Handscomb contributed a steady 51 and all-rounder Liam Trevaskis was 82 not out on his Foxes county debut.

Sussex had the home side 63-3 midway through the morning session on a green-tinged pitch but were not able to press home their advantage.

They used eight different bowlers with Fynn Hudson-Prentice (3-50) the pick of them.

Patel and Marcus Harris put on 59 before Harris was caught behind for 24 off Ari Karvelas, with Louis Kimber exiting cheaply after having his off-stump uprooted by Hudson-Prentice shortly after.

Skipper Lewis Hill also fell to Hudson-Prentice next ball but Patel and Handscomb added 78 for the fourth wicket before the former fell five overs after lunch when he was tempted by a short ball from Danny Lamb and gloved a relatively easy leg-side catch to John Simpson behind the stumps.

Trevaskis provided solid support for Handscomb in a stand that added 65 for the fifth wicket and helped Ben Cox rebuild after the Australian was bowled by off-spinner Jack Carson, beaten in the flight attempting to slog-sweep.

He helped eke out a further 49 with Cox before the latter bottom-edged into his stumps and 43 with Ben Mike, who was caught-and-bowled off a leading edge after the second new ball had been taken.

Tom Scriven was well caught at midwicket as Hudson-Prentice picked up a third wicket inside the last four overs of the day.

Cox's demise provided a wicket for Tom Clark, the opening bat who had not bowled his medium pace since September 2022 because of injury.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.