Yorkshire frustrated again as Leicestershire cling on

A game that had been building up nicely – and towards the overwhelming probability of a Yorkshire win – was ultimately determined by adverse weather.

Leicestershire were 157-7 in their second innings, a deficit of nine, when the game concluded at 6.10pm, with 60 overs having been lost in the day.

Those overs, along with the 26 claimed by the elements on day three, allowed the Championship’s bottom club to escape with a draw and damaged Yorkshire’s hopes of winning promotion.

Although one could quibble with Yorkshire’s bowling at various stages, with Leicestershire having been allowed to score perhaps 70 more runs than they should have done on the opening day, there would have been only one winner had the weather stayed kind.

The 2012 “summer” – and the word can only be used in inverted commas – is now officially beyond a joke.

Not that anyone at Yorkshire would see the funny side, with the club having lost 1,804 of a possible 4,224 overs in Championship cricket – 42.71 per cent of playing time.

Leicestershire were not exactly praying for rain when they began day four on 57-2, 109 behind.

It has not been necessary to seek divine intervention this season for the heavens to open, which they did sufficiently during the morning to prevent play from starting until 12.15pm.

In the 10 overs possible before lunch, Yorkshire looked to have applied the killer thrust. They took three wickets for 38 runs to leave Leicestershire reeling on 95-5, still 71 short of an innings defeat.

The chief architect of the damage was Steve Harmison, who struck with the fifth ball of the morning when he yorked Ramnaresh Sarwan for the second time in the match.

Sarwan was so surprised by the delivery that he stood motionless in his crease for several seconds before reluctantly dragging himself back to the pavilion.

The West Indian might reflect ruefully that he received two jaffas from the former England pace bowler during a game in which he sent down nine no-balls and eight wides.

It was a prima facie case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which, ironically, is a sentiment some in the crowd attached to a number of Harmison’s deliveries.

The 33-year-old still has two things in his favour, however: blistering pace and the ability to pick up wickets when bowling poorly.

And after delivering two no-balls in his second over and another in his third, Harmison struck again when he fortuitously removed first innings centurion Matthew Boyce. The left-hander flicked a half-volley firmly off his legs only for the ball to somehow lodge in the hands of short-leg Joe Root.

It was an instinctive catch by the opening batsman, and it left the home side 77-4.

Steve Patterson – Yorkshire’s best bowler in this game – claimed the fifth Leicestershire wicket when he had Shiv Thakor lbw for a duck.

Patterson should have had another victim moments before lunch but Adam Lyth – for the second time in the match – grassed a chance off him at second slip, Wayne White, on 11, the beneficiary with the total on 90.

Although Lyth’s blunder was in retrospect costly, it would be unfair to apportion blame to a player whose unbeaten 248 had given Yorkshire a chance of victory in the first place.

Moreover, there was still ample time to have gained the win had the rain held off.

Another shower at lunch accounted for an additional 80 minutes and only 12 overs were possible in the afternoon session.

Leicestershire advanced to 
114-5 in that time as White and Ned Eckersley doggedly held firm.

In the 13.4 overs possible in the final session, Yorkshire claimed two wickets.

Azeem Rafiq had White caught behind for 44, ending a stand of 67 in 25 overs with Eckersley, whom the off-spinner then had caught at short-leg when the players returned for a scheduled 6.1 overs before stumps following another 70-minute delay.

Victory would have put Yorkshire one point behind Second Division leaders Derbyshire, who sat out the latest round of Championship games. As it was, a dominant display yielded 11 points rather than 24, which was enough to lift them back into second place above Hampshire, who battled to a nail-biting draw against fellow promotion rivals Kent.