Rain interrupts evenly poised B&H quarter-final

John Hyde reports from Bristol 28-56k John Hyde asked Worcestershire's Graeme Hick what he thought of the possibility of a bowl out to decide the match 28-56k Gloucestershire's Kim Barnett discusses his 100th Benson and Hedges Cup innings 28-56k

The start of the Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-final between Gloucestershire and Worcestershire at Bristol was delayed because of heavy overnight rain. When play did get under way at noon, Gloucestershire were put in to bat and had slumped to 193 for seven when the rain returned when eight balls of their scheduled 50 overs remained to be bowled.

Although that might not appear to be a huge total, it has to be remembered that the outfield was slow and the boundary has only been reached 18 times. Furthermore, with the rain returning, any chance that conditions might improve for fast scoring disappeared.

Gloucestershire lost Craig Spearman for 16 when he was lbw to Andy Bichel, before Matt Windows and Jeremy Snape fell to slip catches by Graeme Hick, off Alamgir Sheriyar and Stuart Lampitt respectively. That left last season's runners-up in a vulnerable position on 49 for three.

The experienced Kim Barnett was still there, however, and he was joined by captain Mark Alleyne in a fourth wicket partnership that realised 90. Just after he had reached his fifty, Barnett was caught by Anurag Singh and, with just a single added, Alleyne was run out for 52.

This was a double blow that Gloucestershire could have done without, especially the captain being run out by Vikram Solanki after a mistake with Mark Hardinges. Hardinges went some way towards repairing the damage with his innings of 29 not out when it rained, but by then he had lost Jack Russell for 13 and Martyn Ball for 8.

In the conditions, it always looked as if it might be possible to defend a score in the region of 200, especially bearing in mind the Gloucestershire know-how in these situations and the fact that they bowled out Worcestershire for just 70 in a zonal match earlier in the season.

Play will resume on Wednesday when the other three ties are due to start.