Liam Norwell leads Gloucestershire’s attack © Getty Images
Leicestershire 90 for 4 (Cosgrove 38*, Norwell 2-16) 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 72 overs left to be bowled.
As it turned out only 26.3 overs were possible before the rain returned to end play.
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.
Foxes’ captain Mark Cosgrove and Colin Ackermann added 33 for the third wicket before Ackermann tried 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 before he too edged a low catch to Roderick off Josh Shaw, but Cosgrove looked in good touch in going to 38 before the rain set in again.
“The pitch is a tad slow, but it nipped around quite a bit to begin with and we did quite nicely,” said Norwell. “Getting the openers early was important, and then Matt Taylor and Josh Shaw bowled really nicely. It was swinging nicely too, and it’s always frustrating to come off when conditions are in your favour like that, but we haven’t bowled many overs and we’ll all be fresh tomorrow.”
Cosgrove added: “It was always going to be tough batting first in those conditions, but I think it will move around all game so if we can up to 250 or even 300, we’ll be in a good spot.
“We want to play on result pitches, and this looks like one. If we have a good morning tomorrow it could really set the game up.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo