Buck helps Leicestershire fight back

Gloucestershire 54 for 2 v Leicestershire 295
Scorecard

Teenager Nathan Buck took a starring role to spearhead a Leicestershire fightback on the first day of their final home County Championship game of the season against Gloucestershire at Grace Road.

The 19-year-old seamer posted a career best score of 26 as Leicestershire's lower order batsmen pulled them out of trouble and then followed up by grabbing two wickets in two balls at the start of Gloucestershire's reply. But, by the close, Gloucestershire had staged a recovery of their own to reach 54 for 2, although they were still 241 runs behind Leicestershire's 295, to which Tom New contributed a top score of 63.

At one stage the home side had looked to be plummeting to a below-par first-innings total after winning the toss and deciding to bat. They stumbled to 36 for 3 and then to 167 for 6 before New led the fightback as the last four wickets adding 128 valuable runs to take Leicestershire to a competitive score.

Claude Henderson struck a quick-fire 33 off 29 balls with 28 of his runs in boundaries, Nadeem Malik made 34 and Buck was last man out for 26 - his best score so far in his first full season of Championship cricket.

Then the England Under-19 international trapped both Will Porterfield and Chris Dent lbw with the third and fourth balls of his second over to plunge Gloucestershire to 10 for 2. It also took the highly-rated Buck to 41 wickets for the season.

He finished with 2 for 20 off his opening six-over spell as Jonathan Batty (24) and Hamish Marshall (19) survived until the close.

Gloucestershire's veteran seamer Jon Lewis was their most successful bowler taking four for 42 with some well controlled bowling on a helpful pitch. The home side were in real trouble after losing their first three wickets in nine overs but Jacques Du Toit hit 46 off 57 balls with seven boundaries, sharing a stand of 55 with Paul Nixon.

Du Toit was dismissed when he edged Anthony Ireland to slip, but Nixon (43) and New put on another 76 runs in 21 overs before Nixon fell lbw to James Franklin. But New led the late tail-end resistance sharing a stand of 56 with Henderson before finally falling to an excellent ball from Ireland that found the edge.

But Buck and Malik put on another 62 in 18 overs for the ninth wicket to take Leicestershire to a more comfortable position than had looked likely.