Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb battle hard for Leicestershire against Glamorgan

Leicestershire’s international pair Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb battled hard to give their side a chance of saving the game after Glamorgan’s Colin Ingram had continued his batting masterclass in the County Championship.

Rahane was 47 not out and Handscomb unbeaten on 33 with Leicestershire 144 for three, trailing by 155, when bad light stopped play with 21.2 scheduled overs remaining.

The Indian and Australian batters were both dropped by Glamorgan leg-spinner Mason Crane, two of his three dropped catches coming off his own bowling, in moments which may come back to haunt the home side as they chase victory on the final day.

Declared

That was after Glamorgan had declared on 550 for nine, with a lead of 299, Ingram unbeaten on a personal best 257 and Crane getting his day off to a better start with 49 runs to his name.

Having already notched his first ever double century Ingram moved past 250, confidently progressing in serene fashion.

He had good support from Crane who was one short of a well deserved half century when he was dismissed in one of the most unfortunate ways possible.

Ingram hit the ball firmly back down the ground, bowler Rehan Ahmed got a fingertip to the ball which went on to hit the stumps at the bowler’s end before Crane could regain his ground.

New Zealander Fraser Sheat hit a breezy 34 while Ingram mainly watched on before the declaration came.

Opening pair Rishi Patel and Ian Holland withstood an impressive salvo from Timm van der Gugten and Fraser Sheat.

It was Dan Douthwaite who made the breakthrough, nipping one back to trap Patel lbw before Ned Leonard got the ball to nip back even more sharply to bowl Leicestershire captain Lewis Hill.

Van der Gugten got in on the act with one which lifted outside off stump and Holland tamely lobbed it to point where Billy Root took the catch.

That brought Indian Ajinkya Rahane and Australian Peter Handscomb together and the pair dug in before bad light had the final say.