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Rain abandons play on Day three against Leicestershire

29 June 2016

Gloucestershire and Leicestershire were denied the opportunity to resume their battle of wills in the Specsavers County Championship when the third day's play was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Heavy rain fell throughout the day and left the outfield sodden, so umpires Nigel Cowley and Steve Garratt were forced to abandon the day at 12.30pm. In an absorbing contest, the pendulum had been swinging back and forth between the two sides for much of the action, before heavy rainfall mid-way through the afternoon session on day two brought about an early finish with Gloucestershire at 69-0 in reply to the hosts' 334 all out.

After a shaky start on the first day, losing Angus Robson in the first over and his opening colleague Paul Horton shortly afterwards, Leicestershire found themselves at 18-2. They would eventually manage to recover to post an overnight tally of 252-7, largely thanks to the staunch batting of all-rounder Neil Dexter (136), who shared in a century stand with skipper Mark Cosgrove (54) to pull County away from trouble.

Superb bowling from the Gloucestershire attack helped to limit the Foxes scoring, but regular wickets were at a premium for the away side as Dexter, along with Cosgrove and contributions from Aadil Ali (30) and Rob Taylor (21), dug in. Dexter finished the day on 107* having been joined at the crease by Clint McKay (8*) and the duo continued their good work the following morning . McKay unleashed a counter-attack, wielding his bat every which way possible to post a whirlwind half-century from just 47 balls, to allow Dexter to continue his controlled knock.

After the final wicket of Richard Jones (5), making his first appearance in a Leicestershire shirt since his arrival for a second loan spell at the FCG, who edged the impressive Liam Norwell (32.1-8-72-4) into the gloves of Gareth Roderick, Leicestershire had added 82 to their overnight total to post a competitive first-innings total.

In reply, Gloucestershire's opening pair of Chris Dent and skipper Gareth Roderick were happy to frustrate the Leicestershire bowlers, playing patiently to see them through to lunch on 21 without loss (Dent 10*, Roderick 9*) from eight overs. Once play resumed, just a further 19.2 overs were managed before the heavens opened to leave the umpires with little choice but to call a premature end to the day's action. Gloucestershire's opening pair remained at the crease, Roderick moving on to an overnight score of 23* and Dent 34* to ensure Gloucestershire's full compliment of wickets remained intact. The two teams, who have both made encouraging starts to the campaign, will now hope for better weather on the final day.

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