Weather disrupts day one in Southampton

DAY ONE | Hampshire CCC 53 for one

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REPORT | Day one saw only 26.2 overs played as the weather disrupts play throughout the day.

The Running Foxes travelled down to Southampton following their week’s hiatus of LV= County Championship following the weather-affected draw at the Uptonsteel County Ground against Surrey CCC.

The fixture that lay ahead looked like it may meet the same fate than that of the four days against Surrey that received a large amount of precipitation that saw no cricket played on day three.

Overnight rain ahead of the first day saw the toss delayed with the first game to welcome back fans getting underway only an hour late than scheduled.

County skipper, Colin Ackermann won the toss and opted to field first on a pitch that had received a lot of rain heading into the first overs of the day.

Chris Wright and Alex Evans opened the bowling for the Running Foxes with Wright getting the day underway with a maiden over, setting the tempo for the first session of the day for Leicestershire.

Evans responded well with good overs, beating the bat of the batsmen a number of times and having a couple lbw calls turned down.

The breakthrough came 37 minutes into day one, as Wright took advantage of the positive start from County as Joe Weatherley (11) edged a delivery that seamed back in, straight to the hands of Colin Ackermann at second slip.

Five balls later, and Leicestershire spurned a chance to take a second wicket of the day after Ian Holland “ sat on 9 “ was reprieved after Rishi Patel shelled what seemed a simple catch at first slip.

Hampshire, following the wicket of Weatherley were 20 for one as the opening partnership for the Running Foxes looked for successive wickets.

Successive wickets though, didn’t come, despite a string of maiden overs from Wright and Evans, as the visitors built the pressure.

The duo of Holland (17) and Tom Alsop (2) saw themselves through to the lunch break, which cam slightly early as the rain began to descend on the Ageas Bowl once again. Lunch came with Hampshire on 30 for one.

The second session saw the introductions of Gavin Griffiths and Ed Barnes into the bowling attack with both bowlers picking up where their colleagues left off, posting maiden overs and continuing to build the pressure - especially upon Holland who looked uncomfortable in the middle.

The County attack was keeping the scoring at bay, as well as putting pressure on the batsmen in the middle by not giving much away in terms of loose deliveries “ a huge improvement on the bowing that has been on display so far this season.

However, it was not long before the rain once again disrupted play as the players were forced off the field for an early tea 3:27pm.

Following tea, and after an inspection on the playing surface from umpires Saggers and Llong decided that no further play was a possibility for the remainder of day one and brought the day to an end at 3:58pm.

Hampshire ended the day on 53 for one with the Running Foxes claiming the solitary wicket in 26.2 overs of play.

FIGURES (1st inns) | Wright 7.2-2-13-1, Evans 7-2-14-0, Griffiths 6-2-12-0, Barnes 6-1-13-0

TEAM | Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, Marcus Harris, Colin Ackermann (C), Lewis Hill, Rishi Patel, Harry Swindells (wk), Chris Wright, Ed Barnes, Gavin Griffiths, Alex Evans

HAMPSHIRE CCC | Mohammad Abbas, Kyle Abbott, Tom Alsop, Keith Barker, Liam Dawson, Ian Holland, Lewis McManus (wk), Sam Northeast, James Vince (C), Joe Weatherley, Brad Wheal.

IMAGES | Thanks to John Mallett of Outside Off for providing the images throughout the game.