Sides evenly poised after rain-hit day at Gloucestershire

Only 36 overs were possible on the opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship game between Gloucestershire and Leicestershire at Bristol.

While there was plenty of action at other venues around the country, heavily overcast skies greeted the players when they arrived at the Seat Unique Stadium and there was always the threat of a downpour until a curtailed final session.

Rain caused two long stoppages after Gloucestershire had won the toss and elected to bat. By the close of a frustrating day, they had posted 108 for 3, Ollie Price unbeaten on 26.

Openers Chris Dent and Ben Charlesworth failed to cash in on positive starts as Chris Wright, Tom Scriven and Callum Parkinson picked up wickets late on.

What little play was possible before lunch saw 11.2 overs bowled and the home side progress with few alarms to 38 without loss. Dent took a heavy toll on Leicestershire's teenaged left-arm seamer Josh Hull, who was withdrawn from the attack having bowled the opening two overs from the Pavilion End at a cost of 22 runs. Five times Dent rocked onto the back foot to dispatch short-of-a-length deliveries from Hull through the off side for boundaries.

Wright bowled a much tighter line and length from the Ashley Down Road End, but lacked penetration on a typically docile Bristol pitch.

Scriven was introduced for the fifth over of the game. He also made the batters work for their runs, but Charlesworth, who has been in good form in the Championship and Vitality Blast, confidently helped Dent launch the Gloucestershire innings.

At 36 for no wicket, Leicestershire introduced spin in the shape of left-armer Parkinson, but he had sent down only two deliveries for two runs when rain forced the first stoppage at 12.45pm.

Lunch was taken at the normal time and after two inspections umpires Paul Baldwin and Graham Lloyd decided play could restart at 2.45pm. With his score on 25, Dent edged Wright just short of Colin Ackermann at second slip. It was the nearest Leicestershire had come to a wicket and seven had been added to the total when the rain returned with Gloucestershire 45 without loss off 14.4 overs.

Tea was taken at 3.10pm. Light rain persisted and by the time the covers were removed for a further inspection, the umpires ordered a 5.15pm resumption with 21.2 overs to be bowled.

They were delivered in the brightest conditions of the day. Charlesworth brought up the fifty with a four through the leg side off Hull before Wright made a much-needed breakthrough. A ball that nipped back off the seam trapped Dent, on 29, in front of his stumps without getting forward and earned a merited lbw verdict with the total on 55.

Parkinson turned one past the outside edge of Ollie Price's bat before Leicestershire struck again, Charlesworth carelessly offering a catch to Hull at square leg, playing a ball from Scriven off his hip, and departing for 21.

Leicestershire could reflect that, Hull's early profligacy with the new ball apart, they had given little away. It was 83 for 3 when left-hander Miles Hammond fell for a duck, driving loosely at a wide ball from Parkinson that turned and hit his off stump.

With the light closing in, Leicestershire opted for spin at both ends, Rehan Ahmed sending down some leg-breaks from the Ashley Down Road End, in tandem with Parkinson.