Four slim slices of play amounting to 17.3 overs were frustrating enough for Leicestershire in their quest to climb off the bottom of the second division table in their final home championship match of the season. It still barely compared with the frustration of Glamorgan, who have a game in hand and began 12 points behind Essex, the second-placed promotion hopefuls.
The sessions spanned 35 balls, 16, 30 and 24 amid rain and bad light in which Garnett Kruger, a Leicestershire medium-fast bowler in the past two seasons and back in familiar territory, removed the middle stump of Matthew Boyce, who was dismissed for a fourth ball duck. Conditions favoured the bowlers with swing and seam to the fore with James Harris, 19, troubling Paul Nixon with movement off a damp pitch.
Nixon, 38, resigned the county captaincy in June, spent two months out of the team and is now re-inventing his career improbably as an opening batsman. He struggled initially to curb his attacking instincts but then adopted a studious approach with 23 from 62 balls in an unbroken partnership with Boeta Dippenaar, who needs 26 runs today to complete 1,000 in the championship this summer.
Leicestershire: First Innings
P A Nixon not out 23
M A G Boyce b Kruger 0
*H H Dippenaar not out 16
Extras 0
Total (1 wkt, 17.3 overs) 39
J J Cobb, J W A Taylor, †T J New, J G E Benning, W A White, C W Henderson, I E O’Brien and A J Harris to bat.
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Fall of wicket: 1-2.
Bowling: Harris 8-3-19-0; Kruger 8.3-3-18-1; Ashling 1-0-2-0.
Glamorgan: *J W M Dalrymple, G P Rees, W D Bragg, M J Powell, M J Cosgrove, †M A Wallace, J A R Harris, T L Maynard, R D B Croft, G J P Kruger, C P Ashling.
Umpires: M J D Bodenham and N L Bainton.