Heroic Ireland and Saxelby help county to a draw

9:53am Tuesday 15th July 2008

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ANTHONY Ireland and young debutant Ian Saxelby were Gloucestershire's heroes as they scraped a draw in their Liverpool Victoria County Championship division two match against Middlesex yesterday.

The county looked to be heading for a defeat but the last pair put on 27 from 22.4 overs to defy Middlesex's bowling attack.

Thornbury pace bowler Ireland ended on 16 not out, while England under-19 international Saxelby remained unbeaten on 11.

Earlier in the day, Owais Shah (65) and Ed Joyce (86*) set the pace for Middlesex, who declared on 212-4 to give themselves 76 overs to topple Gloucestershire over.

And they looked like doing just that as once again Gloucestershire's top order failed to get going.

Only opening batsman Kadeer Ali (32) made an innings of any note as Alan Richardson and Tim Murtagh took three wickets apiece for the visitors.

Gloucestershire slumped to 147-9 and looked dead and buried until Ireland and Saxelby's heroics saw them to 174-9 by the close of play.