Alviro Petersen hit 191 to help Lancashire post 513 in their first innings against Middlesex at Lord's, but the hosts responded with a similarly strong display thanks to an unbeaten 71 from Nick Gubbins.
Middlesex closed on 146/1, as Gubbins shared an unbroken partnership with Stephen Eskinazi (43*) worth 87 runs for the second wicket, after Sam Robson (21) helped to add 59 runs for the opening stand with the left-handed opener.
Petersen and Liam Livingstone - who hit a run-a-ball 58 to record his sixth fifty of the season - added 97 runs for the sixth wicket, but Middlesex stood firm, as Toby Roland-Jones (4-122) and Ollie Rayner (4-120) claimed four wickets apiece when Lancashire's lower order threw the bat in the early stages of the afternoon session.
In a game that already appears to be heading for a draw, barring a miraculous capitulation from Middlesex tomorrow morning, Lancashire will need to extract as many bonus points from the game as possible, but a circumspect start with the bat saw the Red Rose collect only three batting points. Petersen and captain Steven Croft resumed for the visitors, needing just two more runs to secure the third batting point, which they claimed in the first over of the day.
Having shared an unbroken stand worth precisely 100 runs, the hope was that one or both batsmen would kick on for the first hour of the day to see if Lancashire could get a fourth batting point, but the loss of Croft for 46 hampered their progress to reach 350 before 110 overs arrived. Croft, who was dropped twice on the first day, attempted to hit Rayner's first ball of the day for a crisp reverse-sweep, but instead the ball looped behind to John Simpson, with the skipper departing at 326/4.
Petersen started the day on par with the 105 he made against Surrey at Old Trafford earlier this season and it was the South-African veteran who sought to kick on after he and Croft had added 128 runs for the fourth wicket. Falling 16 runs short of a fourth batting point, all Lancashire could do was build a sizeable lead over their hosts and Petersen obliged by going on to reach 150 in 241 deliveries.
Karl Brown (21) made a promising start, but his sweep found the hands of James Fuller at square-leg off the bowling of Rayner at 368/5. It was then up to Livingstone to come out and deliver another fast-paced and flamboyant innings, with his innings of 58 from as many balls injecting a sense of urgency to the morning session.
Livingstone hit four boundaries in his first 15 balls at the crease, helping the Barrow-born batsman to take his average in four-day cricket above one-hundred, however temporarily. His flare helped Lancashire to add 106 runs in the first session, as the Red Rose entered lunch on 404/5, with Petersen and Livingstone going on to add a fifty-partnership in little more than half an hour in 52 balls.
Back-to-back boundaries off James Franklin saw Livingstone reach fifty for the sixth time this season in red-ball cricket in 54 balls, following his second century of the season against Warwickshire. His desire to continue in this one-day modus operandi resulted in his departure, as Fuller took a smart catch running backwards from mid-off to give Roland-Jones the first of three quick wickets.
Petersen attempted to pick up where Livingstone had left off, hitting Roland-Jones into the Grand Stand over mid-wicket for six, but the Middlesex seamer had immediate revenge, taking a reaction catch off his own bowling to remove Petersen for 191 off 285 balls. Roland-Jones had his fourth and final victim when Jordan Clark fell cheaply for 3 having been trapped lbw at 490/8, as Lancashire lost three quick wickets for 19 runs.
The final five wickets fell for the addition of 42 runs in Lancashire's cause to bolster their total, with Neil Wagner hitting three boundaries in his cameo of 14 from nine balls before he hauled out to Dawid Malan on the mid-wicket boundary off Rayner. Lancashire managed to progress beyond the 500 mark, with Kyle Jarvis hitting successive fours down the ground off Rayner, but he was the final man to go when he tried to repeat the result, picking out Robson on the long-off fence, as the visitors were all out for 513.
A flurry of wickets at the start of the afternoon session was followed by a long and painstaking day for Lancashire, as they took their turn to endure the downside of a flat Lord's wicket. Jarvis and Wagner were disciplined in their opening spells, bowling tight and aggressively to the Middlesex openers, Robson and Gubbins, but the duo took 27 runs from the 12 overs before tea without taking any risks.
After progressing to a fifty-partnership in 112 balls in the evening session, Robson found himself victim of the only Middlesex wicket to fall in the day, as Matthew Parkinson struck with his eighth ball of the match to give Lancashire a glimmer of hope. Robson (21) flashed an edge to Livingstone at slip at 59/1, but the rest of the day belonged to Gubbins and Eskinazi.
Gubbins achieved his fifth half-century of the season in 95 deliveries, as he and Eskinazi (43*) added another fifty runs to the total at a brisk pace of 64 balls. By close of play, Middlesex had taken the total to 146/1, with Lancashire leading by 367 runs heading into the third day.
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