County Championship: Keith Barker takes 5-67 to keep Hampshire's match with Lancashire in the balance

Nick Gubbins followed up his unbeaten 101 in Hampshire's first innings by moving to 40 at close of play on day two

Keith Barker claimed his second County Championship five-wicket haul of the season as Hampshire and Lancashire continued their close-fought encounter.

Left-arm fast bowler Barker is the joint leading wicket-taker in Division One so far this season with 20 scalps, with his 5-67 adding to his impressive start to the campaign.

The Lancashire-born bowler helped Hampshire secure a nominal six-run first-innings advantage, with half-centuries from Phil Salt and Tom Bailey keeping the visitors well in the match.

Nick Gubbins led Hampshire's evening lead-builder, while James Anderson added two more wickets to his career tally - with Hampshire closing on 103-3, their lead growing to 109.

The helpful early conditions which had reduced Hampshire to 40-5 on the first morning returned as Lancashire lost six wickets in little over an hour on day two.

Nightwatchman Danny Lamb pushed forward to third slip, Josh Bohannon and Dane Vilas were undone by some extra bounce by the impressive Barker and George Balderson nicked behind having been done on the angle by Kyle Abbott.

Steven Croft attempted to cut with a flourish but instead nailed into the slip cordon and Rob Jones jerked behind - Lancashire 105-7, with all seven being caught behind the wicket.

Hampshire's lead would have been closer to three figures had Joe Weatherley held on to misjudgements from Bailey and Salt when they were in single figures.

The duo put on 94 with risk-free cricket as the ball started to age. Bailey dominated the offside with boundaries, while Salt milked either side of the wicket with intelligent running - half-centuries coming in 70 and 68 balls respectively.

The stand ended when Bailey strode forward to edge to third slip, but Hassan Ali joined the tail-end fun to take the scores to almost parity with a smart 19 - with Barker eventually ending things by bowling a slogging Salt and tempting Hassan into picking out long-on.

After Hampshire returned to bat, Anderson took just nine deliveries to persuade Weatherley to prod a wobble ball to Jones' safe hands at third slip and Ian Holland followed soon after, lbw to Hassan.

James Vince and Gubbins batted their way out of another sticky situation with their glorious shot-making, putting on 58 carefree runs before the former was adjudged leg before to Anderson - a decision that left Vince seething.

Gubbins, who survived a tight lbw appeal, was joined by Liam Dawson and the pair put on an unbeaten 33 under the floodlights before play finished five overs short due to bad light.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.