Delray Rawlins scored a season-best 75 from 115 balls to help Sussex put on a daunting 588 runs in their first innings in the LV= Insurance County Championship second division against Leicestershire at the 1st Central County Ground in Hove.

The home side piled up their highest total for seven years, after Ollie Carter, Rawlins and 18-year-old James Coles, making only his fifth first-class appearance, all scored half-centuries.

Resuming on 407 for four, Carter and Rawlins extended their fifth-wicket stand to 119 in 25 overs.

Callum Parkinson came into the attack in the eighteenth over of the day only for Rawlins to hit his first ball for four to bring up his half-century.

But Parkinson struck in his next over when Carter played on for 75 attempting to dab the ball into the off side. It was another fine innings by the in-form 20-year-old, who has scored 422 runs in his past five championship innings.

Rawlins was another that batted brilliantly in making 75 to prolong the time the Leicestershire fielders had to spend out in the middle once again.

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Coles added 49 for the last wicket with Sean Hunt, hitting four sixes among his 59 in his maiden first-class fifty before he was beaten in the flight by Parkinson coming down the pitch once more.

Parkinson’s hard graft was rewarded with figures of five for 128 from 41.5 overs while 61 extras further boosted the Sussex total.

Steve Finn, captaining Sussex after Tom Haines broke his hand on Monday, made an immediate impact when Hassan Azad was caught at slip off a ball which did just enough off the seam to take the edge.

But Rishi Patel and Louis Kimber got their heads down to negotiate the new ball although they both offered half-chances.

Once the new ball lost its hardness, though, batting became much more straightforward.

The pair batted with increasing authority in an unbroken stand which took them to 159 for one at stumps to leave Leicestershire trailing by 429. Kimber was just shy of his maiden first-class hundred, having already reached a career-best 91, while Patel (67 not out) passed fifty for the third time in his career.