County Championship: Lancashire on top after Steven Croft hundred

Acting Lancashire captain Steven Croft's century was his ninth in first-class cricket

Lancashire's seam attack put them in control after acting captain Steven Croft completed a century on day two against Leicestershire at Grace Road.

After the start was delayed until mid-afternoon, Croft moved to three figures off 151 balls with his 13th four.

He was then caught at mid-wicket off Ben Raine as they were all out for 368, but the home side were soon in trouble.

Angus Robson went cheaply and they were 195-6 at stumps, 173 in arrears, despite 65 not out by Mark Cosgrove.

Resuming on 356-9, Lancashire only extended their innings by three overs when play got under way, but wasted no time making inroads into Leicestershire's top order as Robson fell to Kyle Jarvis.

Tom Bailey then flattened Ned Eckersley's off-stump and Jordan Clark produced a lifter which seemed to surprise Lewis Hill and was adjudged to have flicked his glove on the way through to the keeper.

The wickets continued to fall, two of them to former Leicestershire seamer Nathan Buck (2-44), and although Niall O'Brien (22) helped add 59, only Cosgrove managed to hang on despite playing and missing a number of times early in his innings, surviving unbeaten for almost two and a half hours and hitting nine boundaries.

Leicestershire captain Mark Cosgrove:

"It's not a great position, but we battled on and I'm not even thinking about the follow-on being a factor.

"They bowled pretty well early, but you just have to stay out there, and the longer you do the easier it gets.

"Tomorrow morning I need to get myself back in and go on and get a big one, and we'll see where the game goes from there."

Lancashire seam bowler Nathan Buck:

"We should have done a lot better on that wicket, we're quite lucky to be where we are."