Rain delays start on third day at Grace Road

Weather played spoilsport to Yorkshire's hopes of closing the gap on Championship leaders Surrey during the third day of their match with Leicestershire at Grace Road in Leicester on Friday.

The start of play was delayed by early morning rain with Yorkshire on the overnight score of 194 with only five lower order wickets intact in their first innings and still trailing by 157 runs. Earlier, Leicestershire who elected to bat, scored 351 in their first innings.

Surrey who beat Derbyshire by an innings at the Oval on Thursday and Yorkshire are placed second behind Surrey with 25 points. They badly need a victory from this match against the hosts Leicestershire to keep their title winning hopes alive.

But with a bleak weather forecast for the day, Yorkshire could find it hard to force a result. Yorkshire so far have picked up just three bowling bonus points from the match and are in need of six more runs for their first batting point.