A century by Jaik Mickleburgh took Essex to 240/2 at lunch on the third day of their rain-affected LV=County Championship match against Glamorgan at Chelmsford, trailing the Welsh county by 82 runs, but rain started to fall during the interval and prevented any further play.
Greg Smith struck the first boundary of the day as he got a thick outside edge to John Glover's first delivery which rather fortuitously bisected second slip and gully. Jaik Mickleburgh also did the same in Michael Hogan's second over, much to the angst of the tall Australian before Smith cut Glover just over the head of a diving Dean Cosker in the gully for another boundary followed by another slashed boundary through extra cover.
Mickleburgh then completed an all-run four as he off-drove Hogan as the Essex batsmen appeared to be making up for lost time, but Smith's merry spree then dramatically ended as Cosker plucked the ball out of the air at gully as the Essex batsman unleashed another rasping blow.
132/2 saw Owais Shah join Mickleburgh who unfurled another cover drive against Hogan, before Ruaidhri Smith replaced him at the River End. Shah greeting the youngster by regally unleashing an off-drive for four before showing further positive intent by stepping outside off stump and flicking Smith behind square on the leg-side. Mickleburgh also pulled a couple of short balls from Smith for four as he entered the nineties, although for the home side a greater worry was the build-up of cloud to the west of the ground as the bands of rain which were disrupting play elsewhere in the country, got ever closer to Chelmsford.
Dean Cosker and Andrew Salter then bowled in tandem as Mickleburgh pulled the young off-spinner for four before completing a 155-ball hundred. He celebrated next over by cutting Salter for four followed by a booming off-drive against Cosker with the boundary bringing up the 200 and Essex's first batting point. Shah then lofted the left-armer inside-out over extra cover for six.
Another maximum followed in Salter's next over as Mickleburgh lofted him into the stands at long-on before Shah completed his fifty shortly before lunch from 72 balls, followed by another on-drove for six against Salter.
The precipitation, which has decimated the rest of the county programme today, started to fall during the lunch interval and by 1.10pm, the scheduled re-start time, the entire square was under cover as the rain fell steadily from the leaden sky.
with rain still falling at 4.30pm, play was abandoned for the day.
