Gloucestershire take lead after Tushar ton

Gloucestershire 232 & 159 for 3 (Weston 63) lead Bangladesh A 251 (Tushar 119, Kapali 59, Rudge 3-46) by 140 runs
Scorecard

Gloucestershire built a useful lead over Bangladesh A by the close of the second day despite Tushar Imran's 119 giving Bangladesh a slender advantage on first innings. Phil Weston provided the backbone to Gloucestershire's second innings with a workmanlike 63.

Starting the day on 98 for 3, Tushar and Alok Kapali, the overnight batsmen, extended their partnership to 122. Kapali struck 12 boundaries in his 105-ball 59 before he was trapped lbw by Malinga Bandara, the Sri Lankan legspinner, who is filling one of Gloucestershire's overseas slots while Upul Chandana is on international duty.

Bangladesh then encountered the unknown quantity of William Rudge, a 22-year-old medium pacer bowler making his first-class debut. He snapped up three quick wickets - including Mushfiqur Rahim, the young wicketkeeper-batsmen who made such a positive impression on his test debut at Lord's - to leave Bangladesh floundering on 195 for 7.

Tushar found some valuable support from Shahadat Hossain and the pair added 43 before Tushar was caught off Jon Lewis. Bangladesh ended with a lead of 19 but Gloucestershire lost Kadeer Ali - who followed his first innings duck with just a single - before the deficit was erased.

However, any thoughts Bangladesh had of running through Gloucestershire were halted by Weston and Ian Fisher as they added 97. Although Mushfiqur Rahman removed both before the close Bangladesh are going to face a testing target on the final day.