Rain wipes out day three of Northants' Championship clash with Durham

Rain ruined any prospect of play at the County Ground on Tuesday

Durham’s pursuit of victory against Northants in the LV= Insurance County Championship was delayed by a washed-out day three at Wantage Road.

Rain overnight and throughout the day created a grim vista in Northampton.

Umpires Ben Debenham and Peter Hartley scouted out the conditions during a 3.15pm inspection, but despite the hard work of the ground-staff, the day's proceedings were called off at 3.30pm without a ball bowled.

Durham, thanks to a 149 run ninth-wicket partnership between Matty Potts and Liam Trevaskis, managed to build a 217 run first-innings lead on Monday.

The hosts had reduced that by 10 runs in four overs late on day two and will have been content that the rain somewhat reduced the pressure on them to bat out for over two days – although the time taken out of the game has killed off any chances of a remarkable victory in David Ripley's final home game in charge as head coach.

It means that the final day will be a simple mission of taking 10 wickets – on a slow unresponsive pitch – for Durham, while Northants will be aiming to take as much time out the match as possible while wiping out the deficit.

The weather is forecast to be cloudy on Wednesday but no rain is currently expected.