Toby Roland-Jones finished with a five-wicket return as Middlesex made Gloucestershire follow on at Lord’s to boost their prospects of an opening-round win in the County Championship.
The 38-year-old paceman, who ended last season as Division Two’s second-highest wicket-taker with 45, completed his first stint of the new campaign with 5-37 to dismiss the visitors for 216 – a deficit of 229.
Spinner Zafar Gohar backed Roland-Jones up with 3-47 against his former county, while young seamer Naavya Sharma took 2-39.
Ben Charlesworth and Joe Phillips provided resistance with a dogged partnership of 78 when Gloucestershire batted again but they closed on 120-3, still facing an uphill battle to avoid defeat on the fourth day.
Having lost Ollie Price to the final ball of day two, Gloucestershire made a sedate start and registered just a solitary boundary during the opening half-hour, despite the short distance to the rope on the grandstand side.
James Bracey was beginning to settle, sweeping and cutting fours off his former team-mate Gohar, but Roland-Jones tempted him to drive outside off stump and pick out the waiting gully fielder.
There was a similar fate for Miles Hammond, who had passed his half-century the previous evening and advanced to 77 before top-edging a pull off Roland-Jones, dropping his bat in sheer frustration as the ball sailed into the hands of midwicket.
Craig Miles and Matt Taylor also perished, both attempting to hit Gohar over the top, while Graeme van Buuren displayed some grit in his knock of 26 before chopping the left-armer onto off stump.
Middlesex were held up by last pair Will Williams and Gabe Bell, who pushed their side’s total above 200 as they played out an extra half-hour at the end of the morning session without alarm.
However, it took just a single over after lunch for Sharma to wrap up the innings as Bell fended off a bouncer to short leg, the signal for Gloucestershire’s openers to strap on their pads a second time.
Before long, though, Cameron Bancroft was taking his pads off again, castled for a duck by a snorter from Sebastian Morgan that stayed low and clattered into the visiting captain’s off stump.
Charlesworth and Phillips adopted a patient approach, digging in and putting away the odd loose delivery as they chipped at the deficit despite tight spells from Roland-Jones and Ryan Higgins.
Phillips used his feet to Gohar, unfurling a straight drive for four to take the second-wicket stand beyond 50 shortly before the tea interval and moving ahead of his partner in the final session.
Morgan’s second spell eventually dislodged Phillips five short of his half-century, bringing the ball back down the slope to bowl him via a bottom edge with Gloucestershire still more than 150 in arrears.
That prompted Charlesworth (33) to emerge from his shell but, having leg-glanced Roland-Jones to the fence, he was undone by the next delivery, which reared back to take the edge and clip his off bail.
Hammond was perhaps fortunate to remain at stumps, edging Higgins to slip only for Josh de Caires to spill the chance and then surviving a strong caught behind appeal from Gohar in the next over.
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters Network, supported by Rothesay
