County and Glamorgan suffer rain-hit day

Date: Wednesday 02 September 2009

Day One Report: Leics 39-1 v Glamorgan

Only 17.3 overs were possible on a rain-ruined first day of the Championship match between Leicestershire and Glamorgan at Grace Road.

It was a massively frustrating day for everybody, and you had to feel sorry for County's batsmen, who never were able to settle at the wicket as rain fell at regular intervals.

In the end, 39-1 represented a decent return for the side, with Paul Nixon (23*) and skipper Boeta Dippenaar (16*) toughing it out.

The longest period of the day came before lunch, and even then only 5.5 overs were possible. Batting is always so awkward under the circumstances and the duo deserve great credit for ensuring County only lost one wicket throughout the course of proceedings.

The day started in ominous fashion, with play delayed from the scheduled September start time of 10.30am.

After a couple of early inspections, umpires Neil Bainton and Martin Bodenham decided that the game could get underway at midday. That meant 16 overs had been lost at that stage and the finish was put back until 6pm.

With the recent wet weather and given the covers did not come off until around an hour before play because of drizzle, it was little surprise to see the losers of the toss invited to bat.

That is exactly what happened as Jamie Dalrymple called correctly and asked Leicestershire to get their pads on.

County made one change from the draw at Essex, with overseas bowler Iain O'Brien back in the side for the injured Jigar Naik.

Glamorgan, meanwhile, gave a debut a first-class debut to young Manchester-born seamer Chris Ashling while Garnett Kruger returned to Grace Road to form a pace trio alongside the promising James Harris.

Those two formed an early partnership of some promise, with Harris beating the outside edge in the first over and Kruger also looking lively.

He claimed a breakthrough in his opener; knocking out Matthew Boyce's middle pole with a cracking inswinger to give the visitors the start they were looking for.

Under difficult circumstances, Nixon and Dippenaar battled away and negated the threat of the pacemen.

They also opened their boundary accounts in fine fashion, as Dippenaar launched into a super cover drive off Kruger, while Nixon drove Harris off the back foot in the next over through cover point.

The ball was certainly nipping around and batting was difficult. Nixon negated that by shimmying down the wicket to clip the youngster through mid-wicket with a quality stroke.

Everyone was then scrambling for cover as a heavy shower fell, with lunch - which had initially been moved to one from half-twelve - being taken at the happy medium of 12.45pm.

The score was 15-1 from just 5.5 overs at that stage and the shower became a more prolonged period of heavy rainfall prior to and during the interval.

Afternoon inspections occurred at 2pm and 2.30pm, with a 3.10pm restart decided upon. A further 34 overs were deducted from the day.

Only a further 2.4 overs were possible before the covers came on again, this time for a combination of bad light and rain. Four more overs were deducted with Nixon and Dippenaar having to resume the innings again.

It was certainly a far from ideal scenario for the batsmen. However, both knuckled down to their task and both added boundaries on the resumption.

Dippenaar played a nice square drive off his old colleague Kruger and Nixon pushed nicely back past young Harris.

The skipper also played a deft four through the cordon with soft hands, and that proved to be the last act of that period of play.

Again, only five overs were possible between stoppages, with an early tea taken. The weather looked grim at that point but it brightened up sufficiently to allow a resumption after tea.

Twenty-seven overs were scheduled to be bowled in the remainder of the day, but, unsurprisingly, only four-and-a-half more were bowled before that was finally that.

Nixon had moved to a patient 23 by stumps, while Dippenaar was 16 not out – just 26 runs short of passing 1,000 for the Championship season.

The end of play came as a relief for everyone who had suffered the frustrations of the weather - not least the groundsmen, who had worked so hard getting the covers on and off all day.