Snell saves Gloucestershire's blushes

Bangladesh A 98 for 3 (Tushar 36*, Alok 41*) trail Gloucestershire 232 (Snell 83*, Talha 3-37) by 134 runs
Scorecard

Stephen Snell cracked a fine 83 not out on his first-class debut, to haul Gloucestershire out of a tight corner against Bangladesh A on an intriguing opening day at Bristol.

Snell, a former Hampshire reserve wicketkeeper, came to the crease with Gloucestershire facing humiliation at 67 for 6 - which soon became 72 for 7 - but together with James Averis and the stand-in captain, Jon Lewis, he set about a salvage operation.

Snell and Averis added 88 for the eighth wicket, and when Averis fell for 33, Lewis was on hand to belt a quickfire 47, including 10 fours from 49 balls. He was eventually dismissed by the deserving Talha Jubair, who was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 37, before William Rudge was run out for 0 to deny Snell a chance of a century.

Earlier, Bangladesh's inroads had been made by the extreme pace of Shadahat Hossain, who made his Test debut at Lord's back in May, and Syed Rasel, a 21-year-old left-armer from Jessore. Shahadat bowled Kadeer Ali for a first-ball duck to rock Gloucestershire's early resolve, but thanks to Snell they recovered their composure.

Bangladesh also suffered some early setbacks in their innings, as Shahriar Nafees, Nafees Iqbal and Nazimuddin all fell with just 29 runs on the board. But by the close, Tushar Imran and Alok Kapali had made handsome amends, with an unbeaten partnership of 69.