Leicestershire's hopes of a sixth Championship win this season were ultimately dashed by the weather at Lord's.
tiffany silver jewelry on sale Mind you, it was looking a mighty close-run thing on the final day against Middlesex before rain and light intervened after tea.
The County eventually closed on 139-5. They had been set 193 to win after dismissing their opponents for 255 in their second innings shortly before lunch.
The balance of power swung this way and that during the Leicestershire run chase, which could hardly have got off to a worse start Greg Smith, who had played so well in the first innings, was bowled first ball by Tim Murtagh and the visitors went to lunch on a shaky 10-1. STOPPAGES Jacques du Toit and James Taylor, missing out for once against Middlesex, then followed cheaply and at 29-3 Leicestershire looked as though they had a long afternoon, if they were to save the game, let alone win it.
But Paul Nixon and Matthew Boyce worked extremely hard to dig their side out of immediate trouble and as tea approached the game had just begun to drift back towards the County.
catalog printingBut with the fourth-wicket stand worth 55 Nixon was caught at short leg by the diving Scott Newman off Owais Shah for 24 and it was game on once again.
Boyce completed a very good half-century shortly after tea, but when off-spinner Shaun Udal ripped one through his defences the County, on 92-5, faced a choice of whether to press ahead or settle for batting out a draw.
Tom New was obviously intent on the former option, and Jigar Naik didn't look as though he was in Brigadier Block mode, either - but the rain arrived and three stoppages wrecked whatever positive intent the sixth-wicket pair had.
Leicestershire had completed the first part of their last-day task clinically enough as they took the final six Middlesex wickets for the addition of 87 runs to set up the run-chase.
They had built pressure on the Middlesex batters during Wednesday's final session and took up where they had left off.
Claude Henderson continued from the Nursery End and claimed his third wicket of the innings when nightwatchman Toby Roland-Jones swept to backward square leg.
The wicket the County urgently needed was that of Shah, who looked embedded as he picked off the runs on the way to a patient half-century during which time he found the 深圳搬家公司 boundary on only a couple of occasions.
Off-spinner Naik, though, found some bounce from the Pavilion End and Shah, on 55, edged to du Toit at first slip.
R E S I S TA N C E Skipper Matthew Hoggard immediately took the new ball and Nathan Buck, who had been wicketless in the game to that point, made a real impact.
Bowling with good pace and accuracy, Buck produced a three- wicket burst which ensured that Middlesex's resistance folded quickly.
Hoggard himself took the final wicket when Boyce held a fine, tumbling catch in the deep to remove the big-hitting threat of Pedro Collins.
The game was nicely set up at that point but as the weather closed in it became apparent in late afternoon that neither side was going to be happy with the final outcome.
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