Worcestershire paceman John Hastings was rewarded with a deserved wicket during a truncated third day of the Specsavers County Championship clash with Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.
The Australian all-rounder bowled a probing spell from the Chapel End during the 70 minutes play possible and his first four overs of the innings were maidens.
He made the breakthrough when Gloucestershire opener Cameron Bancroft (22) nicked through to Ross Whiteley who held onto a low catch at first slip with 33 on the board.
It was Hastings 16th Championship wicket of the campaign in which he missed four four-day matches due to his ICC Champions Trophy commitments with Australia.
Skipper Joe Leach also posed problems for the batsmen from the College Lawn End.
Gloucestershire had resumed on 20-0 after Leach had boldly declared 83 runs behind yesterday evening once Worcestershire had secured a third batting bonus point.
Chris Dent was particularly circumspect and scored only four runs off 42 balls – a boundary wide of the slips off Hastings – in the 15.3 overs possible this morning after resuming on seven not out before bad light and then rain intervened.
Will Tavare was more adventurous and had moved onto 23 from 29 deliveries with four boundaries when .bad light and the rain brought a halt to proceedings.
An early lunch was taken and it looked as if play was going to resume at the scheduled time of 1.10pm.
But just as the players were taking the field the heavens opened and heavy rain set in.
