LEICESTER, England, CMC – Rain dealt yet another blow to West Indies’ already wretched tour, forcing the abandonment of the second day of their two-day fixture against Leicestershire here yesterday and further undermining their build-up to the third and final later this week.
Not a ball was bowled at Grace Road as heavy overnight rain left the outfield waterlogged and with more rain in the forecast, umpires Mark Benson and Russell Evans called off play half-hour before the start.
Rain also wrecked the early phase of the Windies tour, allowing just 34 overs all told in the opening three-day tour match against Sussex at Hove.
“It’s the same sort of weather that’s plagued us ever since we got off the plane on the second of May and again you can’t do anything about it but at least we got some cricket yesterday,” a disappointed head coach Ottis Gibson said.
“It was good to see Adrian Barath spending some quality time in the middle and getting a score. Darren Bravo also got a score yesterday as well and it’s invaluable for us.
“Obviously we’ve lost the series already but w
e still have a lot of pride to play for and that time in the middle hopefully will be time well spent.”
Only 50 overs were possible on Saturday’s opening day as rain also kept the players off the field for nearly two hours all told, before bleak light ended the contest.
In the time available, West Indies reached 150 for three with Darren Bravo scoring 66 and opener Adrian Barath stroking an unbeaten 53.
West Indies will now travel to Birmingham for Thursday’s start of the final Test at Edgbaston where they will try to salvage something from a miserable series.
They lost the opening Test at Lord’s by five wickets and crashed to a nine-wicket defeat in the second Test last week, inside four days.
