County Championship: George Balderson & Tom Bailey lead Lancs rally against Bears

George Balderson hit his eighth first-class half-century - and his fourth of the season

George Balderson and Tom Bailey rescued Lancashire with a superb unbroken partnership of 145 to stifle title-chasing Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

After slumping to 150-7 by mid-afternoon, the Lancashire eighth-wicket pair calmly saw out the day's remaining 44 and a half overs.

Balderson finished the day not out on 94, just six short of a maiden century, while Bailey is still there on 75, having bettered his previous career-best score.

They are also within just five runs of a second batting point - and are just 42 shy of equalling the Red Rose's all-time eighth-wicket county record, set by Luke Wood and Danny Lamb at Canterbury in 2021.

It was a happy end to the day for Lancs after a bad start when they lost two players to injuries in the warm-up - Jack Blatherwick and England one-day international Wood, who had been set to come in for only his second red-ball appearance of the season.

In the end, they made five changes as Balderson, Daryl Mitchell, George Bell, Lamb and Jack Morley replaced out-of-form ex-skipper Dane Vilas, who bagged a pair in the defeat by Essex, Worcestershire-bound Rob Jones, despite his near match-saving century, Colin de Grandhomme and Tom Hartley.

Warwickshire had Pakistan left-arm paceman Mir Hamza making his debut, while spinner Danny Briggs was back in after missing two games with a hamstring issue and Dan Mousley also returned after a split-webbing hand injury.

Glenn Maxwell, who stood in for his Bears first-class debut last week, Henry Brookes and Jacob Bethell were the three to drop out.

Lancashire tail-ender Tom Bailey's previous career-best was 68 against Northants in 2019

After being put in, the visitors made a bad start when Luke Wells was strangled down the leg side to be caught behind off Chris Rushworth, his 42nd scalp of the season, but his only one of the day after going off injured.

Josh Bohannon and Keaton Jennings restored order with a stand of 49.

But the in-form Bohannon became the first of four wickets either side of lunch, as the visitors slumped from 55-1 to 91-5.

Ed Barnard had Bohannon caught behind flashing outside off stump, followed by Phil Salt, who played on to Oliver Hannon-Dalby.

Two more wickets then fell in quick succession after the restart as Hamza made Jennings his first Warwickshire scalp, caught at second slip, before just an over later, Bell edged to third slip off Hannon-Dalby.

Balderson helped restore a bit of order in a 58-run stand with Mitchell, but the New Zealand international's departure for 35, a first victim for Briggs, was quickly followed by the loss of Lamb, a second wicket for Barnard.

Both Balderson and Bailey then each hit eight fours as they stunned the hosts by seeing out the day with increasing ease.

But the Bears were not helped by the loss of Rushworth, who left the field halfway through his 15th over of the day with a suspected hamstring strain.