By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Lords
Middlesex lost seven wickets for just 43 runs in the final session of day three as their attempt to move the game forward turned against them.
Having lost large amounts of the match to rain delays and bad light, Middlesex tried to force a victory against Gloucestershire in their hunt for promotion and set about racing to 122 for 3 after just 16 overs.
Instead, Middlesex collapsed and were bowled out for 165 inside just 30 overs setting Gloucestershire a target of 234 to win and the entirety of the final day to do so.
With eleven catches and a direct hit run out, Gloucestershire’s wicketkeeper James Bracey was one of the starring players alongside Zafar Gohar who made his highest score for the county with 86.
Debutant Archie Bailey also picked up his maiden first-class wicket in a spell that eventually yielded 4 for 30 as Gloucestershire stunned Middlesex in the final hour.
36 year old Toby Roland Jones also claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in the space of just nine innings to reduce Gloucestershire to 309 for 9 declared just days after signing a contract extension with Middlesex.
The morning session kicked off with Roland Jones knocking over Tom Price’s middle stump before younger brother Oliver Price was caught at leg gully for 76 with Henry Brookes collecting his first wicket of the game.
The unlikely duo of Zaman Akhter and Zafar Gohar then stitched together a partnership as the latter crossed his fifty mark with Gloucestershire finishing on 260 for 7 at the lunch break.
Post lunch it was Roland Jones who struck again with a dubious LBW call removing Akhter before Gohar went on the attack with Gloucestershire declaring on 309 for 9 just as the Pakistan international was pinned LBW by Ryan Higgins.
At the start of the Middlesex innings, Sam Robson survived a strong caught behind appeal as umpire Paul Baldwin kept his finger in his pocket whilst the Gloucestershire fielders and bowler Tom Price stood in shock.
Tom Price was then replaced by Archie Bailey who claimed a maiden first-class wicket as Mark Stoneman was caught by Cameron Bancroft at third slip.
Six deliveries after the fall of Stoneman, a heavy shower led to an early tea break being taken before the resumption of play lasted just six balls as the players were taken off for rain once more.
The cricket restarted an hour later with Robson racing to fifty before edging behind to Bracey on the first ball of Akhter’s spell as Holden continued Middlesex’s charge at the other end.
Holden eventually lashed at a full wide delivery from Akhter but could only succeed in picking out the deep point fielder as bad light then paused the game for a few minutes.
Higgins was next to fall when he inside edged a Tom Price delivery back onto his stumps before a suicidal second run resulted in the run out of Jack Davies a few overs later.
Wickets continued to tumble in the evening session when Joshua de Caires, Luke Hollman and Roland Jones all edged behind to keeper Bracey before Bailey had Du Plooy given LBW.
Gohar then snuck one through the defences of Henry Brookes to finish off an hour of chaos in which Middlesex fell from 122 for 3 to 165 all out and had thus thrown the game wide open.
