On a grey overcast day at Chelmsford, Essex opening batsman Paul Grayson brightened proceedings with his second century of the season as Essex finished Thursday 103 runs behind their opponents, although they still have seven wickets in hand.

For 28-year-old Grayson, his innings of 125 against Sri Lanka was the sixth century of his career and the Yorkshire born player appears on course to reach 1,000 first class runs in a season for the third time, having taken his aggregate to 795.

He emerged from a tentative start, which included surviving a difficult chance to Russel Arnold when he had scored 19, to play with increasing freedom . . . reaching his century from 150 deliveries including 13 boundaries.

Play was interrupted four times during the day with the loss of 29 overs but Essex made up for lost time, moving along speedily and striking a run rate in excess of three-and-a-half an over.

Grayson and his opening partner Ian Flanagan both endured some anxious moments early on with a number of thick edges failing to find the clutches of the three-man slip cordon.

However, both began to grow in confidence to reach a first wicket partnership of 89 before Flanagan, having scored 29, gave wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardena the first of his three catches.

Stephen Peters was dismissed for a duck, but skipper Ronnie Irani joined Grayson to steer his side away from further immediate perils.

Irani continued to prosper with some sweetly timed drives and more typically belligerent pulls as the Sri Lankan bowlers struggled to maintain control in the chilly conditions.

He was in sight of his second century of the season, he scored 116 against Oxford University, when bad light stopped play.

The visitors used six bowlers during the day but only Suresh Perera could emerge with any real credit, although Ravindra Pushpakumara might have been rewarded for an opening spell that provided Grayson and Flanagan with some difficult problems as the ball swung.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.