'Over the moon' - Foxes seal breakthrough win after 8,318 days

After 8,318 days, Leicestershire had one major cricketing question to answer.

Could they, for the first time in 23 years, win a top-flight County Championship match after ending their lengthy exile in Division Two?

It took them more than half the red-ball campaign to do it - having lost five and drawn two of their opening seven matches - but the answer turned out to be an emphatic yes.

On Sunday they bowled Yorkshire out for 229 at Uptonsteel Grace Road to win by an innings and 39 runs, completing a long-awaited victory with a day to spare.

"Obviously we are over the moon with the performance," Leicestershire head coach Alfonso Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester.

"It was very satisfying to see how we've given a good account of ourselves, because there were a lot of questions with us obviously coming up into Division One and having been out of Division One for a very long time.

"I don't think at any point this season this team have shown why they're in Division One and I think people have definitely now got a picture of why we are there."

To make the picture clearer, Thomas reeled off name after name of those who contributed to what was a milestone victory for a club that, in the not so distant past, found themselves needing to justify their status as a first-class outfit after years of struggles.

Stand-in captain Ben Green tore through Yorkshire's top order on the way to 3-27 on a memorable first day that included teenage pace bowler Alex Green coming up with his maiden first-class wickets. The 19-year-old went on to claim five scalps in the win.

"That was exciting," Thomas said of Green's display. "People get out of their seats when they see pace. But it was not just pace, it was more the accuracy that he bowled with that was very impressive."

With the bat, opener Rishi Patel and Rehan Ahmed, who top-scored with 128, forged a defining early partnership when the hosts went in to chase down Yorkshire's first-innings total of 185.

New Zealander Nick Kelly also weighed in with his first hundred for the Foxes as they cruised past that mark and piled on the runs to reach 453 – giving them a lead of 268 before bowling Yorkshire out for a second time.

"There were eight sessions in the game and we won all eight, so that's a testament to how well the guys have gone about things and how we suffocated Yorkshire from day one and just kept our foot on the throat, which is something that we talk about a lot," Thomas said.

"It was just satisfying to see all the components coming together. From the first session to the last session, we showed what we are capable of."

Leicestershire's first top-tier County Championship win for more than two decades was also a timely one, with the competition now going into a two-month hiatus as white-ball cricket takes over the domestic schedule until August.

The Foxes are next in action in the T20 Blast against Lancashire on Friday.