Ollie Price and the weather combined to frustrate promotion-chasing Middlesex on the second day of their County Championship Division Two match at Lord’s.
Right-hander Price made a gutsy 56 not out, his fifth first-class score of 50 or more this season, as the visitors battled to 154-5, 223 behind, in the 41.4 overs possible between bad light and rain.
Not many of his seven fours came off the middle as the home bowlers found plenty of movement, the inside edge past leg stump being a profitable source of runs.
However, Price’s grit came in the wake of Middlesex skipper Toby Roland-Jones’ burst of 3-12 in 16 balls either side of lunch and served to take the men from the west country from 74-4 to calmer waters, albeit needing a further 74 to save the follow-on.
Roland-Jones had taken 3-56 and Ryan Higgins 2-47 when bad light, followed by rain, drove the players off for the second and final time at 15:15 BST.
The start was delayed by 40 minutes and batting proved hazardous from the off under floodlights, with the first ball from Roland-Jones edged past third slip by Cameron Bancroft.
Roland-Jones and Higgins constantly challenged both edges in ideal seam conditions, Ben Charlesworth nicking the former just short of wicketkeeper Jack Davies before falling for 12 when he diverted a beauty from Higgins to Sam Robson at first slip.
For a while Bancroft rode his luck, the majority of his 25 coming behind the wicket, before he was bowled by one from Roland-Jones which jagged back between bat and pad.
Bad light drove the players off for an early lunch, after which new batter Miles Hammond was hit amidships by Roland-Jones first ball. Hammond crashed one sumptuous four before edging another snorter from Roland-Jones to Tom Helm at third slip.
The veteran seamer had James Bracey caught behind two balls later to leave Gloucestershire in peril but Price dug in, an authoritative on-drive off Helm the pick of his shots.
Graeme van Buuren joined him in a stand of 50 from 67 balls broken by Higgins and Price’s older brother Tom then joined him in the middle, surviving a blow on the head from Helm to keep vigil until the weather had the final word.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.
