Ollie Robinson breaks file by conceding 43 runs in a single OVER

England Test bowler Ollie Robinson conceded an eye-watering 43 runs – the most in an over in the history of the County Championship – as unheralded Leicestershire batsman Louis Kimber shredded cricket’s record books against Sussex at Hove.

Batting at no 8, Kimber produced a truly astonishing assault on the fourth day to obliterate Ben Stokes’ high of 17 sixes in a Championship innings, charging to the fastest double hundred by an Englishman in first-class history in the process.

It surged Leicestershire from the brink of defeat to the verge of a remarkable victory, before he was last out – chopping a delivery from Australian Nathan McAndrew into his stumps after contributing 243 off 127 balls. Opener Rishi Patel’s 41 was the next best score in a total of 445 all out.

Sussex captain John Simpson immediately ran from his position behind the stumps to both console and acknowledge the extraordinary performance by the 27-year-old as the hosts sealed a win by 18 runs at 2.45pm.

The rest of the home team followed his lead as the spectators lucky enough to witness the miraculous counter-attack on the south coast applauded an innings of 21 sixes and 20 fours.

Ollie Robinson conceded the highest number of runs in a single County Championship over

The England Test bowler was put through his paces by an astonishing Louis Kimber (centre)

It was all the more remarkable given that this was Kimber’s eighth Championship appearance of 2024, and he had not previously cleared the ropes in a season tally of 223 runs.

However, coming to the crease with Leicestershire 144 for six in the third over of the final morning, requiring a notional 320 further runs to halt a sequence of seven straight draws, he thrust his foot to the floor.

The Lincolnshire-born player was already hitting at better than a run a ball when he took on Robinson’s short-ball barrage in the 59th over of the innings – hitting eight consecutive deliveries for boundaries, including three from no-balls, to propel him to a 62-ball hundred, and then taking a single off the last to retain the strike.

Having orchestrated a 236-run morning session that took him to 191 off 92 deliveries at lunch, Kimber continued the carnage into the afternoon, with Ben Cox – who contributed 34 to a 239-run stand for the eighth wicket – playing second fiddle.

The equation had been whittled down to an even 50 when Robinson, running up the hill at Hove, won a leg before decision against Cox and McAndrew then accounted for Ben Mike before inducing a rare mishit from Kimber.

His 21 sixes was the fourth most in a first-class innings, and in pumping his 100th ball, from Robinson, for six he became the second fastest to a double hundred behind Afghanistan international Shafiqullah, who took 89 in a domestic match six years ago.

Kimber, who had scored just one previous career hundred and averaged 24.65 in 30 matches, said: ‘I just tried to be positive and see what happened. I got a bit of luck here and there but you need that.

Kimber wreaked havoc as he looked to pull Leicestershire back from the brink versus Sussex

‘All the Sussex players congratulated me and told me I didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. They were very gracious.’

Having spent the majority of the season at no 3, he moved down four places in the order for the fixture and enjoyed the day of his life after Leicestershire used a nightwatchman.

‘I got into a kind of weird zone when I wasn’t thinking too much except trying to hit the ball where I wanted to. It was an amazing feeling. There wasn’t too much running going on, I was just trying to hit the ball as far as I could,’ he added.

Sussex coach Paul Farbrace, whose side remain top of Division Two, said: ‘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.’