Hussain calls late abandonment at Lord's 'a joke'

Nasser Hussain called the decision to abandon play at Lord's shortly after 17:00 BST on Saturday "a joke" after umpires ended the third day of England's second Test against Pakistan. Rain cleared and the sky brightened before officials ultimately called off play at 18:30 with up to an hour of scheduled time remaining.

The morning session had been washed out and only 24.5 overs were possible as showers interrupted play, meaning spectators will receive a 50% refund on their tickets; if 30 overs had been completed no refund would have been due. Players left the field at 17:08 BST and some of the sparse crowd greeted the abandonment with booing.

Groundstaff partially removed the covers as conditions improved and officials deliberated, but umpires Paul Reiffel and Allahuddien Parker abandoned proceedings at 18:30. The weather stayed dry and the light remained good up to 19:30, the time at which play would have been scheduled to close.

"That's a joke, honestly a joke," former England captain Hussain said on Sky Sports. "I earlier said how good the umpires have been. These fans have waited all afternoon for it to stop raining. It's now bright. There's blue sky in the distance. That is an unbelievable decision, it really is. "In about five minutes' time it's going to be sunny here."

Spectators sent messages to the BBC's live coverage criticising the call: "Sat in the Edrich Stand," wrote Joe at Lord's. "It hasn't rained for half an hour and it's as bright as it's been all day. Absolutely no justification for not playing right now. A real shame." Rachel in Kingswinford added: "Ridiculous to call it off! They want fans supporting Test cricket and those spectators have stuck with it all day - another 30-45 mins of play would have been a better look (plus saving authorities money on refunds)!" Paul in Northwich wrote: "This is a terrible advert for cricket. It's like the umpires are waiting for it to rain again. At least the spectators can get a refund."

Play ended with England 177-7 in their second innings, 357 ahead and on course to win the match and series, with Dan Lawrence unbeaten on 50. "It would have been a tricky 40 minutes to go out there and bat," said Dan Lawrence. "It's nice to have a good sleep and think about how I'm going to play in the morning. I can imagine it will be with the same intent and trying to push the game forward. "Forty minutes of batting at 6.45pm is never an ideal thing."

The situation at Lord's came the same day Durham were denied the chance to chase a target of four against Gloucestershire because of bad light at Chester-le-Street, meaning the teams will return on Sunday for what could be as little as one ball of action. Gloucestershire were dismissed for 250 in their second innings and visiting coach Mark Alleyne said: "I'm not sure where to start, really. I mean, 45 minutes before we lost the last wicket, it was too dark to play, which would have been consistent with all the other days that we played." He added: "We had probably 50 minutes of cricket there that we probably shouldn't have done." On the decision not to bowl spin, Alleyne said: "They asked if we would bowl our spinners to finish the game. Of course, we said no, we'll bowl our quick bowlers, in which case it became bad light, so we'll come back tomorrow." Durham coach Ryan Campbell wrote on X: "Cricket sometimes doesn't help itself. Before everyone loads up on the poor old umpires, it's not their fault."

Durham and Gloucestershire will return on Sunday for the unfinished County Championship match, which could require as little as one ball of action, with rain forecast.