Lancashire captain Steven Croft played a vital hand for his side on the opening day of Warwickshire's visit to Emirates Old Trafford in the Specsavers County Championship.
Croft reached stumps on 82 not out, sharing an unbroken partnership worth 105 runs with Karl Brown (41*), helping Lancashire to recover from an early nightmare, when the Red Rose found themselves 6/2 after being put into bat by Warwickshire in testing conditions.
Heavy and persistent rain forced the start of play to be delayed until 2pm, with the only 67 over being possible on Day One, as Lancashire recovered to reach 196/4 after the visitors made early inroads with the ball in overcast conditions.
For the majority of the day, Croft and Brown enjoyed blue sky and sunshine, as they dejected a fierce Warwickshire bowling attack, who came into today high on confidence after beating Lancashire in the NatWest T20 Blast yesterday on Duckworth Lewis by 18 runs.
Lancashire were in a spot of bother when both opening batsmen, Tom Smith and Haseeb Hameed were back in the pavilion inside four overs, but Luke Procter (36) and Croft guided the Red Rose to 82/3, which represented a hard-fought resistance against a bowling attack with international quality from the likes of Jeetan Patel and Boyd Rankin.
Smith (2) fell to the 13th ball of the day, edging Keith Barker (1-22) behind to Tim Ambrose when he shaped for an expansive drive outside the off-stump. Hameed then followed for a 12-ball duck, his first duck for the club, with Rikki Clarke (1-29) trapping the youngster lbw after 3.4 overs to leave Lancashire on 6/2.
Alviro Petersen (25) showed signs of initially leading a resistance, before Patel struck with only his second ball of the day, as the South-African paddled an attempted sweep straight into the hands of Sam Hain at short-leg. This wicket left Lancashire facing another top-order collapse at 46/3 and after the recent run of poor form in the one-day matches, the hosts needed someone to stand up and take responsibility.
Procter played a typically patient knock, entering the tea interval on 33 not out, as he and Croft added 36 runs to enter the break without any further setbacks. However, Kiwi Patel (2-50) continued his knack for striking early in spells, removing Procter with his third ball after tea, as the Lancashire all-rounder wondered out of his crease and was stumped by Ambrose for 36.
Lancashire were once again on the back foot with this early breakthrough in the evening session and it required a captain's innings to rescue them from a potentially disappointing first day. By close, the Lancashire skipper had taken his side within touching distance of their first batting point, leading the recovery with his second half-century of the season in four-day cricket.
He and Brown assembled a fifty-partnership in 120 balls, with Croft's gigantic swept six off Patel taking the pair to this milestone during a sun-bathed evening session. Croft, who has been keeping wicket due to the absence of Alex Davies and Jos Buttler, will no longer be required to do so after the club revealed that they are hoping to sign Tom Moores, son of former coach Peter, as a loan signing.
Croft brought up his half-century in 107 balls, once again sweeping Patel for his sixth boundary, but his six was the shot of the day, given the fact that he had to hit the ball to the longest part of the ground, as the wicker was set heavily towards one side. The hundred-partnership followed in 179 balls, with both Croft and Brown approaching respective milestones, although they will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if they are able to do so.
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