Cricket / Round Up: Dangerous pitch causes surface tension to rise

MATCH ABANDONED because of a dangerous pitch is not a normal occurrence but that is how the game at Grace Road finished, writes Richard Wetherell. After just 11 overs, with Leicestershire 26 for 1 and Waqar Younis preparing to turn his arm over, umpires Jack Bond and David Constant called the game off following consultations with the Leicestershire and Surrey captains, Nigel Briers and Alec Stewart.

Briers said: 'The wicket was not fit for professional players to play on. The square had been flooded on Friday and the pitch was a mixture of hard bits, soft bits and mosaic cracks.

'We knew batting might be difficult but we didn't expect it would be as dangerous as it was. Alec and I felt it just wasn't safe to play on.' The teams hope to replay on Tuesday.

Down in the murky depths of the table, Chris Cairns futher confirmed his status as Nottinghamshire's in-form all-rounder with three wickets and 47 runs against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge. The away side fell from 73 for 1 to 155 all out and during Nottinghamshire's reply Derek Randall passed 7,000 Sunday League runs on the way to a four-wicket win.

They are still bottom, however, kept company by Somerset who lost when Mark Nicholas's unbeaten 84 took Hampshire past them by seven wickets. Nicholas and Paul Terry featured in an unbroken stand of 169 from 30 overs with Terry scoring one less than his captain.

Despite a sound start by Mark Lathwell and Mick Folland of 107 in 25 overs, Somerset could only manage 214 all out. It had not looked good for Hampshire when they struggled to 46 for 3 with Robin Smith falling second ball, but the pair secured Hampshire's second win with seven balls to spare.

Fountains of rain before they got to bat put paid to Middlesex's hopes of bettering Gloucestershire's 243. Four batsmen - Chris Broad, Richard Scott, Tony Wright and Jack Russell - made more than 30, none got to 50.