Prince century gives Lancs chance for victory.

Ashwell Prince made 106 on a rain-affected third day of Lancashire’s LV County Championship match against Durham at Emirates Old Trafford.

Lancashire finished with a first innings total of 421 and a useful lead of 71 runs, but with Durham closing on 59/1 the match appears to be heading for a draw, a result which would force Lancashire further towards relegation.

The hosts entered Day Three on 256/5 with Prince and Tom Smith (44) at the crease, but their progress was haulted on a number of occasions by persistent rain throughout the morning session.

However, the experience and form of both these batsmen meant that a staggered partnership developed towards the lunch interval, as the pair added 61 runs for the sixth-wicket stand.

Smith took the decision to accelerate his innings, striking eight fours during his time at the crease and was in pursuit of what would have been a fourth half-century of the season, but the all-rounder fell just short of this milestone when he edged to Callum MacLeod off Chris Rushworth (2-72)

Lancashire score had now progressed to 316/6 and having reached their third batting point, decided against rushing the innings in search of 350. Stephen Parry made a useful contribution of his own as he assisted the South-African Prince, who was now in search of his century.

Parry (37) became the surprise package of the day, reaching his highest score for the first team as he and Prince added a further 64 runs to Lancashire’s total before Parry edged behind to Phil Mustard off John Hastings (4-78), having been dropped at fine leg moments earlier.

This wicket brought with it another batch of rain and on this occasion it was particularly heavy, forcing the umpires to call an early tea on a day where 36 overs were lost.

When play resumed Prince required just two more runs for his century and he reached this milestone in 199 balls, his tenth century for the Red Rose, but was bowled by Hastings shortly afterwards with the score at 393/8.

Scott Borthwick bowled a total of 49 overs and this was the first time in 16 years a Durham player had delivered this many overs, but the spinner was unable to add to the two wickets he claimed yesterday.

Glen Chapple (21) and Tom Bailey (10) added late-order contributions taking Lancashire’s total in excess of 400 with Ben Stokes (2-83) and Hastings claiming the final two wickets of the innings.

Durham’s resistance in the evening session ensured that the visitors carried nine second-innings wickets into the final day with a minor deficit of 22 runs to overturn.

The only negative in an otherwise faultless passage of play was the loss of Mark Stoneman (29) who was caught at short-leg by Steven Croft off the bowling of Simon Kerrigan (1-14).

Durham lost this wicket after Stoneman and Keaton Jennings had made 41 for the first wicket and Borthwick replicated his efforts in the first innings when was nearly out first ball in what would have been an identical dismissal to Stoneman before him.