Leicestershire fight back on day 3

Louis Kimber, Colin Ackermann and Wiaan Mulder all made centuries as Leicestershire’s batsmen fought back on the third day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match at Hove.

There should have been a fourth hundred to celebrate for the Foxes, but Rishi Patel was out for 99 off the bowling of young James Coles.

Coles has impressed when coming into the team and followed up his brilliant knock of 59 in the first innings with a key wicket in the game.

Leicestershire responded to Sussex’s 588 with 529 for four, Ackermann (167) and Mulder (129) having added 260 for the fifth wicket so far.

Sussex’s bowlers plugged away in hot conditions at The 1st Central County Ground, and it was veteran Steven Finn who was the pick of the Sussex attack.

At the start of the day Kimber, who is playing only his 12th first-class match at the age of 25, reached his century with a lovely extra-cover drive to the boundary in the fourth over of the day.

But Finn pinned Kimber lbw in his next over for 104, which included 11 fours and three sixes.

Kimber had added 174 for the second wicket with Patel, who resumed on 67 and looked certain to follow his team-mate to a first Championship hundred.

Then, with a single needed and with three balls to go before lunch, he inexplicably charged down the pitch to off-spinner James Coles and feathered a thin edge behind, having struck 17 fours and a six in nearly five hours of patient accumulation.

Finn struck in the fourth over with the new ball when he took a low return catch in his follow-through to remove Lewis Hill for 10, but after that Ackermann and Wiaan Mulder shaped the rest of the day.

Ackermann, who gave up the Championship captaincy in May, followed up his hundred against Nottinghamshire in his previous Championship appearance by reaching the 20th of his career shortly after tea.

South African all-rounder Mulder followed him by driving to the long-on boundary to bring up his sixth first-class century.

Sussex will need early wickets on day 4 to have a chance of winning the game, with a draw looking likely.