County Championship: Lancashire pair miss out on centuries as Nottinghamshire respond after delay

Lancashire batter George Balderson fell short of his century after tea on day three at Trent Bridge

George Balderson and Josh Bohannon put Lancashire in a strong position on a rain-disrupted third day of their County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge only to suffer personal disappointment.

The two shared a partnership of 188 for the second wicket in Lancashire's second innings but both fell short of individual hundreds, Balderson missing out on what would have been his maiden century in first-class cricket when he was out for 91.

Bohannon fell on 92 soon afterwards as Nottinghamshire made gains late in the day but there was concern for England pace bowler Olly Stone, who has had more than his fair share of bad luck with injuries in his career, as he had to leave the field after being unable to complete his 15th over in the innings.

Nonetheless, thanks to the efforts of the second-wicket pair, at 219-4 Lancashire will take a lead of 184 and six wickets in hand into the final day when a much better weather forecast raises the prospect of a positive result despite losing 72 of the third day's scheduled overs to rain and bad light.

Rain restricted the action to 20 overs and three balls in the morning session followed by 11 overs and three balls after a 5pm restart, with four-and-a-half hours lost in between, and it may be the long interruption to their concentration worked against the two not-out batters.

Balderson, who had moved from 44 overnight to 90 during that shortened but productive morning session, completed an 89-ball half-century that included nine fours and added a further seven boundaries against some Nottinghamshire bowling that was for the most part fairly ordinary.

But he had added only one more single to his score after the long stoppage when he edged a ball from Stone to second slip where Ben Duckett, who had put him down on four on Friday, held a good low catch.

The 22-year-old Mancunian was understandably disappointed but after being pushed up the order to open the batting in the absence of the injured Keaton Jennings, he had served his side admirably well.

Balderson had also been dropped on 32 on day two by first slip Brett Hutton, whose normally reliable hands let him down again only three balls after the evening restart with Bohannon given a life on 85 off Lyndon James.

The mistake was less expensive this time as after another, mercifully very brief, stoppage for a shower, Bohannon edged James to second slip, where Duckett got his hands under another low catch as Lancashire's top scorer so far this season perished for 92.

James quickly followed that success with a second wicket, pinning stand-in skipper Dane Vilas lbw for two with a ball that struck just below the knee roll.

Lancashire will have welcomed a final stoppage for bad light more than Nottinghamshire, even after Stone had left the field four balls into his fifth over of the truncated evening session.

Although conditions were much in their favour with heavy cloud cover and the floodlights blazing, it was a much better effort with the ball from Nottinghamshire, who had offered too many scoring opportunities, particularly to the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side of the ground, in the early part of the day.

Stuart Broad was unlucky at times in the five overs he sent down, inducing false shots from Balderson and Bohannon to no gain.

The England pace bowler is wicketless from 11 overs in the innings, having conceded 50 runs. He did not bowl in the evening session.

Bohannon's knock continued a fine start to the season, in which he has made a century against Surrey in the opening round of matches as well as scoring 85 against Somerset two weeks ago.

It is likely both sides will be looking for a positive result on the final day.

Nottinghamshire are keen to bounce back from defeat against Middlesex at Lord's in their last match as they try to establish themselves in Division One following promotion last season.

Lancashire have yet to taste defeat but neither have they experienced a victory after rain denied them in good positions away to Essex and Somerset.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.