"I'm incredibly proud": Paul Nixon delighted by Leicestershire's display at Hove

Nixon pointed to the display as proof that his players have what it takes to challenge for one of the three promotion places available in Division Two this year, and he was full of praise for the squad at the close of play

Leicestershire head coach Paul Nixon says his side's impressive win at Sussex will give them "enormous confidence" at the start of their County Championship campaign.

The visitors wrapped up a surprise seven-wicket victory on Monday afternoon, knocking off the 230 runs the needed with ease.

Nixon pointed to the display as proof that his players have what it takes to challenge for one of the three promotion places available in Division Two this year, and he was full of praise for the squad at the close of play.

"I’m incredibly proud, it was a really good team performance. From the moment Tom Taylor stepped up and got that wicket with the fourth ball we were excellent," Nixon said.

"Paul Horton led from the front, Hasan Azad played beautifully and Mark Cosgrove looks in a special place, he looks like an international cricketer after he had a tough 2018 – there were so many positives for us. The calmness with which we went about our business was really pleasing, we looked a different outfit. We had total belief that we are going to win that game.

SCORECARD

"It will give us enormous confidence. Man-for-man, I believe we are as good as any team in Division Two and no county has worked harder this winter. We’re in a good place. It’s a long season but we’ve made a really positive start."

Nixon's Sussex counterpart, Jason Gillespie, cut a very different figure.

"It’s disappointing," he said. "We hung in but when you find yourself 38 for 5 on the first morning and under the pump it’s very hard to come back from that. Then on the third morning we lost 4 for 21. If we’d got a few more runs we could have made it really challenging but fair play to Leicester, they played well.

"There were two occasions when we lost wickets in clumps and our batters need to identify those periods and adapt when the opposition are bowling really well. It is something for us to learn from – that is the challenge, to continually reflect on team and our individual performances."