Middlesex and Gloucestershire locked in war of attrition

Stephen Fleming rescued Middlesex from a precarious 5-2 with his first CricInfo Championship half-century on an attritional second day at Bristol.

But, despite the New Zealand captain's elegant 52, the visitors were still in some trouble at the close on 186-7, 86 runs behind.

The day began with Gloucestershire on 247-7 and Kim Barnett just eight runs short of his 58th first-class century.

Having taken 45 minutes to move to 99, the 40-year-old elder statesman of county cricket was bowled by Phil Tufnell looking to work the ball through the leg-side for his ton.

Barnett had batted for five-and-a-half hours and faced 271 balls. After Gloucestershire had been bowled out for 272 the true value of his vigil became apparent.

Andrew Strauss fell in Jon Lewis's opening over and when Owais Shah was judged lbw to an Ian Harvey inswinger Middlesex looked in deep trouble.

But Fleming looked a class act from the start, scoring boundaries all around the wicket in reaching his fifty off 112 balls, with nine fours.

Fellow left-handers Ben Hutton (47) and Paul Weekes (31) also made valuable contributions, but could not break free of the shackles imposed by some disciplined Gloucestershire bowling.

Mark Alleyne took 2-14 from his 13 overs and, with Lewis (2-36) and Harvey (2-55) also keeping a check on the runs, the scoring rate barely exceeded two an over.

It was a dour battle on a pitch that continued to demand application from batsmen and bowlers. The loss of Weekes and Simon Cook late in the day from a promising 174-5, left Middlesex with an uphill task to gain first innings lead.