Smith and Davies rebuild after top order collapse.

Smith finished as Lancashire's top scorer at the end of the second day.

An unbeaten seventh-wicket stand worth 74 between Tom Smith (45*) and Alex Davies (41*) saved Lancashire from a catastrophic batting collapse on the second day of their match at home to Sussex, as the hosts closed on 157-6.

Lancashire stumbled to 48-5, signalling yet another top-order batting collapse, but were indebted to the efforts of Smith and Davies who guided them beyond the follow-on, developing a useful partnership before bad light stopped play just after tea.

The first session of the day proved to be a mixture of success and failure for Lancashire after claiming the vital wicket of Michael Yardy for 139 after he was run out in fortuitous style by Glen Chapple after deflecting the ball onto the stumps at the non-stikers end.

Sussex's innings had surpassed expectation thanks to the efforts of Yardy, but with the visitors needing nine more runs to achieve a third batting bonus point, Steve Magoffin and Jon Lewis had an important part to play early on.

Unfortunately for Sussex, however, Lewis became Simon Kerrigan's second scalp of the innings after he was trapped LBW for 4, with Sussex all out for 298, falling desperately short of their target of 300.

As far as Lancashire were concerned, the work had been down with the ball after claiming the final two wickets this morning for 22 runs and the hosts were aiming to take some of this momentum into their first innings.

But an all to familiar sight was to greet the Old Trafford faithful as Lancashire limped to 48-5, as another top-order collapse unfolded. Paul Horton's runs have been valuable for the Red Rose so far this season, but Lancashire's top run-scorer was the first man to fall, adding just 2 before he was caught superbly at second slip by Yardy.

Magoffin was unbeaten on 16 when Lewis' wicket brought Sussex's innings to a close and he was to make a sizeable dent in Lancashire's top order, claiming the first three wickets to put the visitors total of 298 into perspective.

Luis Reece seemed to be heading for his first significant contribution of the season before he fell LBW, leaving a swinging delivery from Magoffin and the re-introduction of Karl Brown (10) saw the hosts slump to 38-3 after he edged behind to Ben Brown.

James Anyon then struck twice in the same over to remove Ashwell Prince and Steven Croft cheaply and Luke Procter added 26 before a delivery from Ashar Zaidi turned back to trap him LBW, putting Lancashire in an unfavourable position at 80-6.

With a deficit of 118 runs still in Sussex's favour, the task of avoiding the follow-on fell to Smith and Davies. The former had been in good all-round form before this match and played with a professional temperament, ably assisted by Davies who took a slightly more aggressive approach to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Both batsmen approached half centuries in the evening session, but bad light ended play prematurely to ensure that Lancashire would close on a respectable score of 157-6 after suffering a scare earlier on in the day.