Cricket

Louis Kimber: ‘You don’t get many days like that in your career’

Louis Kimber said he would try to savour the glory of his extraordinary 243 from 127 balls for Leicestershire in Hove, despite falling agonisingly short of what would have been a victory for the ages against Sussex.

Louis Kimber’s 243 was also the highest score by a batter at No. 8 (or lower) in County Championship history•Leicestershire CCC

Sussex’s head coach Paul Farbrace might have had a sense of déjà vu after watching Leicestershire rack up 483 in pursuit of 499 in the corresponding fixture at Hove last season. Though he praised his team for holding their nerve amid Kimber’s onslaught, he admitted that “between 12 and 1 we completely lost our heads”.

“We had some pretty ordinary plans and executed them even worse,” Farbrace said. “But at lunch they still needed 89 and we won from a worse situation against them last year. The plan was to go short and try and bounce Louis. Ollie Robinson struck him on the gloves a couple of times then he nicked off and it went between keeper and slip. He just kept going so fair play to him.

“From their point of view, they had gone from a situation where you’re not expected to win to being favourites. Fair play to Louis Kimber, he just kept striking the ball and about ten minutes before we took the last wicket, I thought we could be angry about our game but sometimes you have to say well played to someone who played brilliantly and had a day out he will never forget.

“He hit 21 sixes but it felt like 41 and I’m not surprised at the records he has broken, it was an exceptional innings, but our session after lunch when we took the last three wickets was top class.”