County Championship 2022 | Beard, Crocombe stuns Leicestershire as Sussex controls Day 1

As it happened, a pace-bowling exhibition from Aaron Beard and Henry Crocombe blustered Leicestershire out of the game with Sussex completely in command of the proceedings as the play came to a close on Day 1 of the 20th match of the County Championship 2022 Division II.

Opting to bat first, Leicestershire had a mighty task up to their sleeves as their out-of-form batting unit aimed to neutralise the new ball effect. While the opening partnership between Hasan Azad and Sam Evans lasted for 16.4 overs and gathered 35 runs for the team, all fell off the cliff as the latter perished for 10 runs.

After that, Sussex's pacers ran the show as they dismantled Leicestershire's fragile batting unit that crumbled it into bits. Beard and Crocombe made the opposition batters dance to their tunes, effectively using the swinging conditions on offer.

Azad's innings ended courtesy of a run-out. Although Rishi Patel, Colin Ackermann, Lewis Hill and Wiaan Mulder got the starts, they could never capitalise on it as Leicestershire stuttered throughout the innings.

Some handy contributions down the order from Callum Parkinson and Chris Wright meant that Leicestershire crossed the 200-run mark but would it be enough to hide the dismal batting effort? Only time will tell. Eventually, the side lost all 10 wickets with the score reading 210.

In the bid to take early wickets, Leicestershire started with their lead pacers, Chris Wright and Beuran Hendricks. However, the ploy did not quite work as Sussex openers Tom Alsop and Tom Haines cautiously batted through the early overs.

But Callum Parkinson, who came to bowl the last over of the day, did wonders for his team, claiming a crucial wicket of Alsop. At the end of Day 1, Sussex had scored 39 runs at the loss of one wicket.

Brief scores:

Leicestershire - 210/10 

Lewis Hill 35, Callum Parkinson 32*;

Henry Crocombe 3-37, Aaron Beard 3-58

Sussex - 39/1

Tom Haines 22*;

Callum Parkinson 1-0

Sussex trail by 171 runs.