No final-day play possible in match that was blighted by the weather from the first day
Rain ruined any chance of a result at Lord’s  •  Getty Images
Middlesex 407 for 8 (Robson 162, du Plooy 131) drew with Leicestershire 306 (Handscomb 109, Bamber 4-68)
Middlesex’s Vitality County Championship clash with Leicestershire ended in a damp squib of a draw with no play possible on the final day.
The hosts led by 101 with two wickets left going into day four, but the rain which washed out the first day’s action returned with a vengeance early on the final morning drenching the outfield.
Umpires Paul Baldwin and Robert White gave the ground every chance to recover, calling an early tea at 3:10pm following a 2:35pm inspection. However, further rain in the interim led to the abandonment at 3:25pm. . The hosts earn 15 points to Leicestershire’s 12 leaving them both on 68 points, six shy of leaders Sussex. Middlesex however sit above the Foxes in the table on games won.
Toby Roland-Jones, Middlesex’s captain, said: “It’s frustrating. We’ve lost two full days of a game we feel we’ve played pretty good cricket in and certainly the only reason we’ve ended up only 100 ahead is through I guess trying to fast forward things a little bit on that third evening.
“When you find yourselves here with the way this place can dry and have two days where it hasn’t stopped raining is incredibly rare. Once you get that window here it can be pretty good to go in a couple of hours, so we’ve just been unlucky that’s not been the case.
“The most important thing is we can be happy about the way we have gone about our cricket once more. Set 300 to try and hunt and get past, the guys went about it with great skill. That partnership between Robbo (Sam Robson) and Leus (Du Plooy) was obviously great to watch.”
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