Steady rain after tea meant that just four overs were bowled in the final session on the third day of Glamorgan's LV=County Championship match with Leicestershire at Swansea with the visitor's ending on 134/2 still 171 runs in arrears.
Starting the day 242 runs ahead, Glamorgan were looking for further quick runs this morning from their remaining batsmen with Graham Wagg - who had struck a pair of enormous sixes in the closing overs last night - making his intentions clear with a Zorro-esque stroke to his second delivery of the morning which sent a short, wide delivery from Ollie Freckingham racing to the point boundary, followed by a more orthodox lofted straight drive for four to long-on.
With the total on 453 Andrew Salter edged Ben Raine to Greg Smith at second slip with Dean Cosker duly joining Wagg who continued his lusty salvo by drilling Freckingham to long-off for four, but his fusillade of blows was ended next over as he lofted Raine into the hands of deep extra cover. With the total on 462, Michael Hogan made his way to the middle and he also used the long handle to good effect as he despatched Freckingham to the ropes at cover point, before Cosker twice steered Raine to the vacant third man boundary.
Hogan then smeared the spin of James Sykes to mid-wicket and long-on in successive balls before lofting Raine to long-on and long-off in successive balls to bring up the 500. The Australian then struck Sykes straight for six whereupon Mark Wallace declared on 508/9 after fort-five minutes batting which had extended the lead to 305.
As on the first day, the overhead conditions were in the bowler's favour as Leicestershire began their second innings with a minimum of 84 overs remaining in the day's allocation and with raindrops also starting to fall. Five balls were possible from Wagg before the precipitation intensified forcing the players off the field for half an hour.
When play resumed, Wagg delivered a wide before Greg Smith drove the last ball of the over to the cover boundary where Ben Wright sustained a finger injury as he sprawled to field the ball and collided with the boundary, and briefly departed for medical treatment. After a probing first over from Hogan, Wagg beat the outside edge of O'Brien's bat before being driven to the cover boundary by Smith. The opener then repeated the stroke against Hogan before Wagg also went past his outside edge.
In the closing overs before lunch, Cosker had an exploratory spell of spin at the Pavilion End, but it was Hogan who struck as the leading wicket-taker in the County Championship further added to his tally as Smith departed l.b.w.
The parsimonious Jim Allenby then delivered three successive maidens at the Pavilion End before Niall O'Brien brought up the fifty by cover driving the all-rounder. Graham Wagg then replaced Hogan and was twice driven through the covers by Eckersley, before O'Brien twice top-edged Wagg over the head of the slip cordon to bring up the fifty stand.
A more orthodox sweep by Eckersley saw him garner another boundary at Cosker's expense before Glamorgan opted for an all-spin attack as Andrew Salter entered the fray. The youngster was then drilled through mid-off by Eckersley, before getting some turn from the surface as he bowled the obdurate O'Brien with the total on 93. Shiv Thakor then joined Eckersley with the Glamorgan spinners each bowling with a gaggle of close fielders.
Eckersley responded by twice cutting Salter for four as he completed his fifty from 105 balls shortly before Hogan returned at the Mumbles Road End. But light drizzle then started to fall bringing an early tea
A minimum of 96 overs remain on the final day which Mark Wallace and his team hope will dawn bright and clear as they press to take the eight remaining wickets for their second Championship victory of the summer.
