da cassino online： Stephen Fleming rescued Middlesex from a precarious 5-2 with his first CricInfoChampionship half-century on an attritional second day at Bristol
Richard Latham10-May-2001Stephen Fleming rescued Middlesex from a precarious 5-2 with his first CricInfoChampionship half-century on an attritional second day at Bristol.But, despite the New Zealand captain’s elegant 52, the visitors were stillin some trouble at the close on 186-7, 86 runs behind.The day began with Gloucestershire on 247-7 and Kim Barnett just eight runsshort of his 58th first-class century.Having taken 45 minutes to move to 99, the 40-year-old elder statesman ofcounty cricket was bowled by Phil Tufnell looking to work the ball throughthe leg-side for his ton.Barnett had batted for five-and-a-half hours and faced 271 balls. AfterGloucestershire had been bowled out for 272 the true value of his vigilbecame apparent.Andrew Strauss fell in Jon Lewis’s opening over and when Owais Shah wasjudged lbw to an Ian Harvey inswinger Middlesex looked in deep trouble.But Fleming looked a class act from the start, scoring boundaries all aroundthe wicket in reaching his fifty off 112 balls, with nine fours.Fellow left-handers Ben Hutton (47) and Paul Weekes (31) also made valuablecontributions, but could not break free of the shackles imposed by somedisciplined 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 exceededtwo an over.It was a dour battle on a pitch that continued to demand application frombatsmen and bowlers. The loss of Weekes and Simon Cook late in the day froma promising 174-5, left Middlesex with an uphill task to gain first inningslead.