Steelbacks vs Foxes again affected by rain
Sun 12 Jun 2016
Northamptonshire Steelbacks and Leicestershire Foxes shared the Royal London One-Day Cup spoils as only two overs were possible on a terrible day of weather at Wantage Road.
The abandonment meant that six of the last seven fixtures between these sides have been disrupted by the weather including two Specsavers County Championship matches and three NatWest T20 Blast contests.
Although both teams are used to spending time in the dressing rooms when they meet, it felt as if the cricketing gods were going out of their way to tease everybody today.
The start was initially delayed by five hours due to rain and after the groundstaff worked wonders to get the players out in the middle for a match that was reduced to 19 overs per side, it absolutely bucketed it down within ten minutes.
When the respective teams were named at 3.30pm, Leicestershire showed two changes to the previous 50-over defeat at Warwickshire.
Cameron Delport came in for his Leicestershire List A debut and Aadil Ali was also named in the starting XI. They came in for Niall O’Brien, who hurt his calf at Edgbaston, and James Sykes.
Mark Pettini won the toss and invited the Steelbacks to bat first and former Fox Josh Cobb opened alongside Adam Rossington.
The ‘keeper struck the first boundary of the game through mid-wicket at the start of the second over and the score moved to 12-0 by the end of it.
Unfortunately heavy rain then returned and although it relented fairly quickly, a deluge was the last thing the ground needed after suffering earlier in the day.
Umpires Tim Robinson and Ben Debenham had no choice but to call the game off at 4.30pm so the teams registered a point apiece.
Leicestershire's next fixture in the competition is against Worcestershire at New Road on Wednesday. The Rapids then come to the Fischer County Ground on Friday night for a quick reunion, albeit in a different competition, NatWest T20 Blast.
