Red Rose captain Steven Croft registered the first Lancashire century of the season against Cambridge MCCU on a positive day with the bat for the visitors at Fenner's.
Lancashire progressed to 290/7 before bad light caused play to end prematurely, with Croft (103*) and teenager Haseeb Hameed (59) showing exceptional determination in testing early-season conditions.
Cambridge gave a much-improved performance with the ball compared to earlier performances against Essex and Nottinghamshire, with left-arm spinner Josh Arksey taking 3-69 to finish as the pick of the bowlers at stumps.
Inserted by the home side, Lancashire were put to task early on by Cambridge, losing Karl Brown (14) after he and Hameed had applied themselves superbly to survive the first hour unscathed. Brown's thin edge gave Connor Emerton his first wicket of the day, while Hameed continued to show determination at the crease.
Luke Procter started positively but he was next to depart, edging to first slip off Adam Barton for 13, as Lancashire progressed to 78/2. Hameed combined superb timing with good fortune, as he continued to find the boundary regularly on his way to a half-century, which came in exactly 100 deliveries.
A positive morning session, underpinned by the application of Hameed, gave Lancashire a strong platform heading into the afternoon, but the weather started to diminish after the interval, which made batting an unfriendly task. His first true shot of any belligerence saw Hameed play all around a straight ball from Arksey, who collected the first of three wickets at 105/3, as conditions started to take ahold of the match.
Luis Reece (22) was met with a similar fate when his first shot in anger, an attempted pull into the leg-side, resulted in a routine catch for Adil Arif at mid-wicket off the bowling of Alastair Allchin (1-70).
Croft and Alex Davies (27) established a composed partnership worth 68 runs to restore Lancashire's sturdy position in this fixture, although progress continued to be blighted by ever-deteriorating light. The latter failed to make it to tea, falling to the spin of Arksey with the score at 207/5, with Croft progressing to a 69-ball fifty with his seventh boundary just before tea.
Now accompanied by Liam Livingstone, the Lancashire skipper demonstrated the sort of quality at the crease that has been a hallmark of his time as captain, showing grit and willingness not to throw his wicket away as others had done before him when a loose ball came along. Livingstone (12) favoured the sweep shot and crunched a pleasing shot to the boundary in doing so, but this approach was to be his undoing, as he was trapped plumb lbw by Arksey at 234/6.
James Anderson came in a No. 8 for the Red Rose and played a beautiful cover drive to the boundary before he was clean bowled by Emerton for 16. The umpires continued to consult each other about the poor light, but the players stayed out in the middle long enough for Croft to reach the first Lancashire hundred of the season in 143 balls, with his thirteenth four taking him to this milestone.
The players left the field as soon as Croft had reached three figures, with Lancashire reaching 290/7 by close of play.
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