Brown 92 leads strong day with the bat for Lancashire

Karl Brown hit 92 for Lancashire as the tourists enjoyed a strong day with the bat against UAE during their two-day friendly in Dubai.

Brown and captain Steven Croft (51) added 98 runs for the second-wicket partnership, cementing the strong platform established by Haseeb Hameed (33), who shared 71 runs with Brown for the opening stand.

Liam Livingstone (50) continued his excellent pre-season form with the bat, scoring a half-century either side of tea, as the Red Rose ended the first day with an impressive total of 319/7 in sweltering conditions.

With UAE missing several players, the Red Rose happily handed the opposition Simon Kerrigan, Toby Lester, Nathan Buck and Saqib Mahmood, allowing more of Lancashire's players to get game time ahead of the new season.

Brown and Hameed faced their own teammates in Lester and Mahmood to start the friendly with UAE, but it was the Lancashire batters who enjoyed the better start. Boundaries came regularly, particularly for the more experienced Brown, who hit 16 boundaries during his innings of 92 from 136 balls.

Hameed played a typically patient hand at the top of the innings with Brown, but the teenager was not shy of dispatching the bad ball when it came, as Lancashire progressed to 55/0 after only 11 overs. Kerrigan played a hand in the first Red Rose wicket to fall, taking a routine catch at mid on off the bowling of Imran Haider (1-56) to send Hameed back to the pavilion for 33.

This was the last wicket to fall for Lancashire before the tea interval, with Brown and Croft both retiring on 92 and 51 respectively. While Brown continued to find the ropes with perfectly-timed cover drives, Croft took the more aggressive route, thumping two straight sixes off the spinners, including a huge six against Kerrigan to help take Lancashire beyond 100.

Brown motored to a 79-ball fifty with his tenth boundary of the morning session, as Lancashire entered lunch on 108/1. The strong progress between Brown and skipper Croft continued after the break, with Croft's second maximum bringing up the fifty partnership in the 35th over of the innings.

Croft's third and final six over long on, once again off the bowling of Kerrigan, cemented a superb day with the bat for Lancashire, with Brown now favouring a few cavalier strokes over the top of the inner circle, much like his captain had done throughout his entire innings.

Approaching three figures, the Lancashire opening batsman was signalled to retire by the dugout, eight runs short of what would have been a fluent and masterful century. His retirement allowed Livingstone to continue his fine pre-season form for the Red Rose, as the promising young batsman added a half-century to his runs against Yorkshire last week.

Captain Croft retired immediately after reaching his fifty from 94 balls, with his replacement Jordan Clark adding just four runs to the total before his wicket signalled tea in Dubai. Livingstone entered the interval needing only one more run to reach fifty, a single which he secured just after the break to take him to a run-a-ball half-century with eight boundaries.

He fell soon after reaching fifty to Mahmood (2-47) who had earlier forced Clark to be caught in the deep before tea. The young Lancashire fast bowler had Livingstone caught by Buck at mid on, with this wicket signalling a recovery from UAE in the final session.

The home side took four wickets for 42 runs either side of tea, removing Alex Davies (10) and Luis Reece (15) cheaply before a determined partnership between Luke Procter and Stephen Parry for the eight wicket. Buck had Davies caught in the gully to a sharply-rising delivery, while Reece was trapped lbw sweeping across the line to Rameez Shahzad (1-10), wickets which left Lancashire on 281/7.

Procter (30*) and Parry (16*) came together and steadied the innings brilliantly following this minor setback for the Red Rose, adding an unbeaten partnership worth 38 runs before close of play.