Sussex suffered a startling batting collapse as they were bowled out before tea on the opening day of their County Championship clash with Leicestershire at Hove.

The dismissal of Luke Wells sparked a clatter of wickets as Sussex slumped from 130-3 to 163 all out in the space of 12 overs.

Only Ed Joyce provided any resistance as he made 56 after Sussex had elected to bat with six batsmen out in single figures.

The Ireland international had batted well for his half-century but his dismissal was one of a series of soft dismissals as he was strangled down the leg-side off the bowling of Wayne White.

Ollie Robinson fell in identical fashion to the same bowler while Wells chipped Clint McKay straight to the man at midwicket and Ajmal Shahzad was run out after a horrible mix-up with Ben Brown.

Brown became White’s third victim when he was caught behind pushing tentatively forward with Ben Raine wrapping up the tail by dismissing George Garton and Steve Magoffin to finish with figures of 4-30.