Gloucestershire 82 for 3 trail Middlesex 203 (de Lange 6-49) by 121 runs
Gloucestershire fast bowler Marchant de Lange notched his 350th first class wicket in claiming 6 for 49 to skittle Middlesex for 203 on the opening day of the Vitality County Championship Second Division match at Bristol.
The 33-year-old South African only took six Championship wickets in the whole of last summer, his first with Gloucestershire, which saw his season ended in early June by a thigh injury that required surgery. Now fit and firing again, he bowled 16 rapid overs from the Ashley Down Road End and ripped through the heart of the Middlesex batting, only Josh de Caires (37) and Ryan Higgins (30) showing much resistance.
By the the time bad light ended play 6.2 overs early, the home side had replied with 82 for 3, Ollie Price making 33 and Miles Hammond 25 not out.
For a time at the start of the day it looked a good toss for Middlesex to have lost as Mark Stoneman and Nathan Fernandes took advantage of unusually short boundaries at the Seat Unique Stadium to put together an opening stand of 55 in 14 overs.
Then three wickets fell in the space of 18 balls. Stoneman was bowled between bat and pad by Zaman Akhter for 29, Max Holden edged a high slip catch to Price off de Lange and Fernandes, on 24, nicked through to wicketkeeper James Bracey to become de Lange's 350th victim in his 104th first-class game.
Marchant de Lange with an absolute seed to dismiss Nathan Fernandes! pic.twitter.com/Y2YFxCSir5
— Gloucestershire Cricket (@Gloscricket) April 26, 2024
Leus du Plooy and Higgins did their best to steady the Middlesex ship and took the score to 105 for 3 at lunch. But soon after the interval du Plooy attempted to withdraw the bat from a Dom Goodman delivery and feathered a catch through to Bracey.
Stephen Eskinazi survived a couple of edges into the slip cordon, but had made only 11 when being taken at gully driving at Goodman to make it 127 for 5. On the same score, Higgins edged a defensive back-foot shot off de Lange to Cameron Bancroft at second slip.
Bancroft held another slip chance on a cold overcast afternoon to send back Jack Davies and give de Lange his fourth wicket, but de Caires and Tom Helm then managed to arrest the slide with a stand of 58 inside 16 overs.
The return of de Lange accounted for both, Helm bowled leg stump by a full delivery for 22 and de Caires falling to catch at mid-wicket off a top-edged pull shot in the same over. Henry Brookes departed to the left-arm spin of Gloucestershire skipper Graeme van Buuren, offering a stinging return catch, and Middlesex had been bowled out inside 60 overs on a pitch offering no more than routine first day seam movement.
Gloucestershire's reply got off to a poor start when Chris Dent, due to rest a back injury, but called into the side when Zafar Gohar was injured in the warm-up, was bowled for three by a full delivery from Ethan Bamber.
Bantcroft and Price both needed moments of fortune in adding 38 for the second wicket before Bancroft dragged a wide delivery from Higgins onto his stumps and fell for 12. With the light closing in, Price was caught behind fending at a short ball from Helm and Middlesex had gone some way towards making up for a poor batting display.
