LEICESTER (third day of four): Leicestershire, with nine first- innings wickets in hand, are 400 runs behind Worcestershire.
A CURIOUS freak of nature occurred at Grace Road at 5pm yesterday when, according to George Sharp and Jeff Evans, the umpires, it was too dark to play at one end of the pitch but not the other.
Light was offered to the Leicestershire batsmen, accepted and then withdrawn as Vikram Solanki, the Worcestershire captain, indicated he would replace his quicker bowler with Gareth Batty, the off spinner. Nothing unusual in that, of course, but the next over from the Pavilion End was bowled by Zaheer Khan, the India strike bowler, without a twitch from either official. It was Zaheer who took the one wicket to fall in the ten overs play that were possible, bowling John Maunders with a full- length ball that swung late.
That the players appeared at all on a murky day was due to the persistence of Solanki, who persuaded the umpires during a fourth inspection that the outfield had dried sufficiently. Sharp’s trousers tucked into socks indicated his thoughts.
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Solanki’s desire to get on was no doubt intensified by the progress of Essex, their promotion rivals, at Colchester and with the gap between second and third place closing, he faces a dilemma today: should he settle for a draw and try to increase Worcestershire’s bonus haul or with exactly 400 separating the sides, does he tempt Leicestershire into a run chase?