Leicestershire senior coach Tim Boon felt that his side had been one major partnership away from posting the 300 total they were looking for after being put in to bat by Sussex at Grace Road yesterday.

County were hustled out for 204, which was down more to the quality of the visitors' seam attack than any frailty in the Leicestershire first-innings batting.

"It was tough before lunch," said Boon. "Sussex bowled well. Yasir Arafat and Corey Collymore made our batters play at everything.

"It was overcast, the ball was nibbling and it required a bit of luck out there."

The only Leicestershire player to dominate the bowling was Andrew McDonald, who looked in little trouble on his way to 63 until slow left-armer Monty Panesar trapped him lbw in his first over of the day.

"Andrew played well," said Boon. "But we needed one of the top five to play through with him. We're disappointed not to get 300 but we needed one more partnership."

Although the County camp felt they had come up short in their first innings, they did at least hit back by capturing four Sussex wickets by the close of play.

They were led by skipper Matthew Hoggard, who claimed 3-42, and could easily have had more as the ball flew all too frequently through the gully area at a catchable height to the vacant third-man boundary.

Nathan Buck was the other successful Leicestershire bowler.

But fellow seamers Nadeem Malik and Wayne White probably wondered how they finished the day wicketless having each gone past the outside edge of the bat on a number of occasions.