Daaryoush, Kishore dig deep as Gloucestershire frustrate Middlesex

Daaryoush Ahmed and Sai Kishore shared an eighth-wicket stand of 144 to dig Gloucestershire out of a hole on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match with Middlesex at the Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol.

After the visitors had added just two runs to their overnight first innings score of 324 for nine, James Langridge claiming the last wicket for figures of three for 82, Gloucestershire slipped from 79 for one in reply to 128 for seven.

But that was as good as it got for Middlesex. South Asian Cricket Academy product Ahmed hitting a career-best 90 not out off 117 balls, with 6 fours and 3 sixes, while India A spinner Kishore contributed 71 from 131 deliveries, clearing the ropes seven times.

Their combined efforts saw Gloucestershire bowled out for 296, just 30 runs behind. By the close, Middlesex had made 17 without loss in their second innings and led by 47.

Langridge has proved a shrewd late season signing for Gloucestershire. The 20-year-old Devonian, on loan from Somerset, took his wicket tally to 13 in three Championship appearances when bowling Dan Ferns in the fourth over of the morning. Toby Roland-Jones was left 45 not out.

The hosts had progressed to 42 in reply when Joe Phillips, on 23, edged a defensive push off seamer Seb Morgan through to wicketkeeper Harry Duke. Ollie Price and Tommy Boorman were forced to battle hard as they progressed the score to 68 for one at lunch.

Price had taken 74 balls over his 15 and was unable to add in the afternoon session before Ryan Higgins sent his middle stump cartwheeling. Three balls later Miles Hammond edged to second slip and departed for a duck with the scoreboard reading 79 for three.

Boorman fought tenaciously for his 32 off 54 deliveries before suffering the same fate as Price, his middle stump uprooted by the inspired Higgins to make it 100 for four. Kamran Dhariwal then fell for a 25-ball duck, caught behind defending a ball from Morgan.

Higgins, a Championship promotion winner with Gloucestershire in 2019, finished his spell from the Ashley Down Road End with figures of three for 16 from 11 overs, five of them maidens.

Gloucestershire were in grave danger of following on when Ed Middleton recorded the third duck of the innings, leg before to Morgan. At 128 for seven, the home side trailed by 198 runs.

But 25-year-old Ahmed gradually grew in stature to be unbeaten on 36 at tea, with Kishore offering staunch support on 18. At that point the stand was worth 45.

A pulled single by Ahmed off Ferns took Gloucestershire past the follow-on figure. His next single, from a Morgan no-ball, brought up the half-century stand. Ahmed's own fifty was reached with a push into the off side off Higgins, having faced 87 balls and hit three fours and a six. The next target was to pass his previous highest first class score of 52, made in the previous game against Lancashire at Old Trafford.

That was accomplished with a boundary off Ferns. All the while Kishore was gaining in confidence, damaging Higgins' figures with a big six over long-off. The 29-year-old left-hander cleared the ropes on four other occasions in a 114-ball half-century, his first for Gloucestershire.

Another maximum followed off Zafar Gohar as Kishore and Ahmed took their stand past the century mark. Ahmed joined in the aggression with a straight six off leg-spinner Luke Hollman and soon the hosts were celebrating an unlikely batting point.

Kishore eventually perished to a catch in the deep off Hollman, who pinned Matt Taylor lbw with his next ball before ending the innings by bowling Langridge with Ahmed ten short of a maiden century.

Middlesex were left with ten overs to bat. Openers Hollman and Sam Robson watchfully saw them through to stumps.