Cobb leads way for Seconds

Josh Cobb made 62 as Leicestershire closed a rain-affected second day on 113-5 against Surrey at Grace Road.

Surrey declared on their overnight total of 187-9, and County moved to within 74 runs of the visitors after a stop-start day.

The highlight of the day was Cobb’s knock, and he shared 62 for the first wicket with Kibworth teammate Sundeep Patel over three separate periods of play.

Play started on time, but a heavy shower took the players off quite quickly. Play then resumed for a short while before another burst curtailed things around 45 minutes before lunch.

More rain throughout the afternoon meant the game did not resume until 5pm, and when it did, the hardy spectators who braved the elements were rewarded with 90 minutes of entertaining play.

Cobb stroked the ball around nicely, while Patel was willing to graft in the face of some accurate visiting bowling.

The young left-hander had made 18 before being bowled by Chris Cheslin with one that nipped back through his defences.

The wicket sparked two separate burst of two strikes by Surrey, with Jacques du Toit falling to a bat-pad catch that looped up to Laurie Evans at third slip off the bowling of Tim Linley.

County team had gone from 65-0 to 66-2, and the score went from 89-2 to 91-4 as Wayne White and Cobb both fell.

White chopped James Benning’s first ball onto his stumps, while Cobb – whose 50 had come up from 69 balls with nine fours - edged a Daryl King ball to second slip attempting another off-side driven boundary.

King struck again later by snaring Joel Pope (13) leg-before, which left Alex Roberts (9*) and Jigar Naik (0*) at the crease at the end of the day.

It leaves an intriguing final day’s play in prospect, given the weather forecasters are more optimistic than the opening two days and a run chase should be on the cards at some point.