Leicestershire 90-4 v Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire's seamers made early inroads after the visitors chose to bowl first in bowler-friendly conditions on the opening day of their Specsavers county championship match against Leicestershire at the Fischer County Ground.
Rain meant no play was possible during the morning session, but umpires Jeff Evans and Nigel Cowley decided play could start immediately following lunch, with a possible 72 overs left to be bowled.
With the ball swinging in the cloudy and slightly humid conditions, as well as seaming off the green-tinged pitch, batting was a far from straightforward proposition, as Liam Norwell demonstrated in sending both Leicestershire openers back to the pavilion with just 20 runs on the board.
First to go was Harry Dearden, the 20-year-old left-hander edging a delivery which left him low to second slip, where Chris Dent held a good low catch, and Michael Carberry quickly followed, edging an in-swinger onto his pad, the ball looping gently to Kieran Noema-Barnett at gully.
Mark Cosgrove and Colin Ackermann added 33 for the third wicket before the South African Ackermann got into a tangle trying to force an in-swinging delivery from left-arm seamer Matt Taylor through the off side, and succeeded only in edging a low catch to wicket-keeper Gareth Roderick.
Ned Eckersley hit one beautifully timed cover drive to the boundary before he too edged a low catch to Roderick off Josh Shaw, but the occasional false shot notwithstanding, Cosgrove looked in good touch in going to an unbeaten 38 before heavy rain returned.
Leach and Bess watching on the balcony like... pic.twitter.com/ZTMCM4mbn3
— Kier ✌ (@webbsyK83) September 5, 2017