Lancashire v Warwickshire: Liam Livingstone makes maiden double century

Liam Livingstone and Shivnarine Chanderpaul batted together for 49 overs in their fifth-wicket stand of 211

Liam Livingstone made his maiden first-class double century as Championship title hopefuls Lancashire built a big lead over Division One's bottom club Warwickshire at Old Trafford.

The England T20 batsman batted through day two to hit 215 not out off 318 balls as the Red Rose reached 484-6.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (93) was chief ally in a 211-run fifth-wicket stand.

England's Jos Buttler made a quickfire 49, after nightwatchman Stephen Parry's earlier 43.

Although bad light ended play seven overs early, Lancashire built a lead of 284-run lead over their former coach Ashley Giles' beleaguered Bears.

That keeps alive their slim hopes of chasing down Essex at the top of the table, having gone into this game 41 points behind.

Struggling Warwickshire took only three wickets in the day, failing to take a single one at all in the afternoon session as they just missed out on a second bowling bonus point, to increase their threat of relegation.

While 24-year-old Livingstone smashed three sixes and 25 fours, 43-year-old Chanderpaul narrowly missed out on a 77th career first-class century.

Against one of the three other English counties he has played for, the veteran former West Indies left-hander pulled Chris Wright to Jeetan Patel at square-leg off the first ball of the evening session.

Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It was good fun. We said at the start of the day to try to bat the full day out and see where we were at the end of the day. We've achieved that and we're excited for day three.

"When you get the chance to get in and put a performance on for the team, that's what everyone wants to do.

"We've still got work to do, but we've put ourselves in a good position where we can push and try to win as many games as we can and see where we end up."

Warwickshire seamer Chris Wright told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire:

"It was a long day in the scheme of things. We tried as hard as we could and kept coming, but Livingstone performed really well.

"I can't think of Livingstone giving a chance. We dropped Parry a couple of times and Buttler. If we'd have maybe got Shiv in a bit earlier, it might have panned out differently. But they played really well.

"That's what we've got to try and do in our second innings. The way back in for us is to keep trying as hard as we can. Hopefully we'll get these remaining wickets as quick as we can and then apply ourselves with the bat."