Sussex 361 (89.5 overs) and 149-3 (35 overs)
Leicestershire 245 (65 overs)
Sussex lead by 265 runs with seven wickets remaining
Ollie Robinson’s pitch for an England recall could hardly have gone better as he and fellow pace bowler Henry Crocombe took five wickets each to keep Sussex firmly in control against Leicestershire in the Rothesay County Championship.
Looking lean and hungry, Sussex’s newly-appointed red-ball captain took five for 42 from 16 overs, with 24-year-old Crocombe backing him up with an impressive career-best five for 33 from 12 as the home side were bowled out for 245, conceding a lead of 116.
Daniel Hughes, dropped twice, gave the Sussex second innings the start they wanted by making an assertive 72 as they finished on 149 for three, stretching their advantage to 265.
Jake Weatherald, the Australian Test opener, marked his Leicestershire debut with a watchable 83 but found meagre support and it was only an 81-run eighth-wicket partnership between Ben Cox (44) and Ben Green (43 not out) that saved the Division Two champions from following on in their first match back in the top flight.
Robinson and Crocombe had begun by reducing Leicestershire from 15 for one overnight in reply to Sussex’s 361 to 139 for five at lunch, despite Weatherald making an impressive impact.
The left-hander, a last-minute Foxes addition after captain Peter Handscomb’s decision to miss the 2026 season for family reasons, won appreciative applause for his driving from the home crowd. His half-century came off only 65 balls.
At the other end, though, it was a different story, at least in the final six overs of the session. Up to that point, at 117 for two, Leicestershire had seemed to be building a decent reply. Their only casualty, in addition to the loss of opener Rishi Patel on Friday evening, had been nightwatchman Tom Scriven, lbw to Robinson.
Robinson, who last played Test cricket more than two years ago, was bowling nicely but it was a spell by Crocombe, a right-armer still trying to ally consistency with undoubted pace, that did the most telling damage, removing three of Leicestershire’s middle order in the space of 13 deliveries. Ray Baker, the England bowling scout in attendance here, would have been impressed.
Ian Holland, who had looked relatively comfortable in adding 77 with Weatherald for the third wicket, was caught at third slip off a slightly loose shot, but if his dismissal had an element of batter error, that could not be said of the fate of Rehan Ahmed and Lewis Hill.
Both perished trying to defend quick, skilful deliveries, Ahmed caught behind to one that nipped back and took the outside edge, Hill bowled by one that straightened to beat his block and uproot off stump.
What was turning into a profitable phase for Sussex continued after lunch as Stephen Eskinazi edged to third slip, his dismissal followed in the same Robinson spell by the one the visitors most wanted as Weatherald, who had moved to 83, made a rare misjudgment and chopped on.
At this point, at 154 for seven, the deficit was a yawning 207. A fightback of sorts followed as the resilient Cox and the canny all-rounder Green combined. Cox in time became Robinson’s fifth victim, but not until the eighth-wicket pair had at least averted the follow-on.
Crocombe now took over from Robinson and finished the innings with two wickets in two balls, having Sam Wood caught behind before Yadvinder Singh’s so-far inauspicious debut continued with a first-ball leg before.
It left Sussex with 33 overs in the final session to build on their advantage. They lost Tom Haines, caught at first slip for 13, and first-innings centurion Tom Clark for 16, taken by Patel as the only slip, but Australian left-hander Hughes rode his luck, put down on 24 at extra cover and 29 at slip, on the way to 72 from 97 balls, including nine fours and two sixes, before being bowled by Ahmed, with a ball that turned and kept low.
