Foxes Send Records Tumbling at Hove
Fri 15 Jul 2022
Leicestershire sent records tumbling as the history books were constantly rewritten throughout the final day and a half of their County Championship fixture with Sussex.
The Foxes made hay at a sun-drenched Hove, posting the highest ever total in the Club’s 143-year history. A score of 756 for four arising thanks to unbroken double hundreds from Colin Ackermann and Wiaan Mulder.
The score broke a 116-year-old record, when County tallied 701 against Worcestershire at New Road in the summer of 1906.
En route, Leicestershire set their highest ever score against Sussex, comprehensively beating the 609 for eight recorded at Grace Road in 1900, as well as the highest total ever conceded by Sussex, surpassing the 726 they leaked at Nottinghamshire in 1895.
Furthermore, it was the highest score in 150 years of cricket at Hove, and the 13th largest total in County Championship history.
Ackermann and Mulder’s phenomenal unblemished partnership of 477 also set cricket historians to work.
The alliance beat David Masters and John Sadler’s record for the highest fifth wicket partnership against Sussex, a score of 208 in 2003, also at Hove, before shattering the Club’s fifth wicket partnership record of 322, set by Ben Smith and Phil Simmons against Notts in 1998.
Most significantly, however, Ackermann and Mulder went on to further rewrite the record books by surpassing the Club’s highest ever partnership of 436, chalked up by Darren Maddy and Brad Hodge against Loughborough UCCE in 2003.
As well as obliterating Club records, the pair also trumped the County Championship record for the highest fifth wicket stand “ going past the 401 set by Mal Loye and David Ripley for Northamptonshire against Glamorgan in 1998.
The alliance now ranks as the third highest for a fifth wicket in first-class cricket, leapfrogging Australian Test twins, Mark and Steve Waugh, who put on 464 for New South Wales against Western Australia in Perth during the 1990-91 season.
Ackermann’s excellent 277 not out saw him post the highest score for Leicestershire against Sussex, beating Les Berry’s 232 in 1930, while individually he recorded his maiden career double hundred, which took him past his previous career best of 196* against Middlesex in 2018.
The South African-born batsman also posted his 15,000th career run, his 3,500th County Championship run and his 500th County Championship run of the season during the innings.
Mulder’s brilliance also saw him better his previous career best. An unbroken 235 exceeding the 146 he scored for the Lions in January 2019. He passed 2,500 first class career runs in the process.
Finally, Louis Kimber’s maiden hundred took him to a career best score of 104, while Rishi Patel’s agonising 99 was also a career best for the 23-year-old.
