Leicestershire's rain-hit LV County Championship match against Glamorgan looked to be heading towards a draw at Grace Road with the hosts closing the third day on 21 without loss in their second innings to lead by 85 runs.

All-rounder James Benning, who joined Leicestershire from Surrey three weeks ago, claimed a Championship best return of three for 43 as Glamorgan were bowled out for 218.

That gave Leicestershire a 64-run advantage and Glamorgan were unable to make a breakthrough with Paul Nixon and Matt Boyce surviving 11 difficult overs at the end of the day.

Although both sides will be keen to push for victory with Leicestershire bottom of the table and Glamorgan still in with a chance of promotion from Division Two, the time available is going to make any thoughts of declarations difficult.

Leicestershire added 13 runs to their overnight score of 269 for nine before AJ Harris was trapped lbw by the impressive James Harris, giving the 19-year-old seamer his fourth wicket of the innings.

It left Claude Henderson on 79 not out, just three runs short of a career-best score.

On a pitch that was still providing some help to the bowlers with variable bounce, Glamorgan made a poor start to their reply, losing opener Gareth Rees in the first over.

He was bowled by New Zealand paceman Iain O'Brien offering no shot to a ball that knocked back his off stump.

From that point on it became slow going for the visitors, particularly after the normally big-hitting Mark Cosgrove became another lbw victim when he tried to work a delivery from Harris through the leg side.

Benning, who was used only occasionally as a bowler by Surrey, enjoyed the conditions and his steady medium pace posed plenty of problems to the Glamorgan batsmen.

Only Michael Powell showed any real confidence on the pitch as he progressed to a solid half-century that came off 93 balls and included seven boundaries.

Powell and Glamorgan captain James Dalrymple shared a fourth-wicket stand of 82 in 28 overs before Benning broke through.

He had Dalrymple lbw and that sparked off a spell that saw four wickets tumble for eight runs in six overs before tea.

Powell was one of them, also lbw to Benning, having made 61 off 125 balls.

Robert Croft then hit 40 off 55 balls to steer the late-order batsmen past the 200 mark and collect a batting point for the visitors.

But left-arm spinner Henderson finally brought the innings to an end by bowling Chris Ashling, leaving Leicestershire with a marginal advantage.