Louis Kimber hit Ollie Robinson for a record 43 in one over en route to a sensational double century, but Leicestershire fell 18 runs short of victory against Sussex.
The 27-year-old’s 127-ball 243 ripped up the Championship record books as he scored the fastest double hundred from balls faced (100), hit the most sixes (21) and the most runs in one over when he plundered 43 off England seamer Robinson.
Leicestershire were four down heading into day four and needed 325 in their pursuit of 464, with number eight Kimber leading the charge to almost guide the Foxes to an unlikely victory.
The fireworks came in the 59th over as Kimber scored 43 runs off Robinson to surpass the record for most runs scored in an over.
There were nine balls in the over, with Robinson overstepping three times – conceding two penalty runs each time as well as the runs hit by the batsman – and Kimber struck two sixes and six fours, the fifth of which he cut low past cover to bring up a 62-ball hundred.
Kimber then smashed a fuller delivery from Robinson through the covers before taking a single off the last ball to keep the strike.
- Ball 1: Hit for 6.
- Ball 2: A no-ball hit for 4.
- Ball 3: Hit for 4.
- Ball 4: Hit for 6.
- Ball 5: Hit for 4.
- Ball 6: No-ball hit for 4.
- Ball 7: Hit for 4.
- Ball 8: No-ball hit for 4.
- Ball 9. A single.
Surrey bowler Alex Tudor conceded 38 runs in one over – with Andrew Flintoff scoring 34 of them – in 1998, while Worcestershire’s Shoaib Bashir conceded the same number two days ago when Surrey’s Dan Lawrence hit five successive sixes.
Kimber hit 41 boundaries in total, with 21 of them sixes as he broke Ben Stokes’ Championship record of 17.
But he fell agonisingly short of dragging his side to victory when he was bowled by Nathan McAndrew with 19 more needed for victory.
Kimber said: “You don’t get many days like that in your career, it was unbelievable really. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get over the line, but personally you have to enjoy days like that. It was good fun.
“I just tried to be positive and see what happened. I got a bit of luck here and there but you need that. Most of the lads have told me to remember it because days like this don’t come around too often.
“My phone has been buzzing and the records I have broken are pretty cool. All the Sussex players congratulated me and told me I didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. They were very gracious and over four days probably deserved to win.
“I can’t remember hitting the ball as cleanly as I did today before. 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.”
