One-Day Cup: Heavy rain decimates Sunday schedule

The umpires made an early decision to abandon the match at Leicester

County cricket fell victim to the weather on Sunday with two-thirds of the One-Day Cup programme washed out without a ball being bowled.

Derbyshire's home game against Essex was first to go with umpires Nigel Cowley and Peter Willey deciding no play was possible at 10:30 BST.

Leicestershire's match with Northants at Grace Road and Warwickshire against Kent at Rugby followed at 12:00.

And Notts v Surrey at Trent Bridge was abandoned shortly afterwards.

The only games to see any play were Durham against Middlesex at Chester-le-Street and Somerset v Sussex at Taunton, but the former also ended as a no result after the weather permitted only 14 overs of play.

Essex head coach Paul Grayson had no complaints about the decision to call off their game, describing conditions at the County Ground in Derby as "like a bog".

Both he and opposite numbers Graeme Welch have fingers crossed that there will be better weather on Monday - with Essex travelling further north to face Yorkshire at Scarborough and Derbyshire away against Northants.

"We've got three games left and I think we need to win two of them," said Welch. "Everyone is beating everyone else and I think it will go down to the last round of games."

The weather was a big disappointment for Warwickshire, who had been expecting a crowd of about 3,000 at Rugby School.

However, the abandonments meant that the unbeaten records of Kent and Notts remained intact.

The round-robin stage of the competition continues until 21 August, with the top four in each group then progressing to the quarter-finals.