LANCASHIRE stand-in captain Steven Croft rounded off an excellent personal weekend against Leicestershire at Grace Road today as he neared his first hundred of 2015.

Croft hit 98 not out off 146 balls to help the Red Rose reach 356-9 from 95.4 overs during the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against the Foxes, with opener Paul Horton adding 70.

The batting all-rounder underpinned a recovery during the second half of a day which saw Lancashire slip from 156-2 to 156-5 with the loss of three wickets in five balls after lunch.

This came after Croft’s 39-ball unbeaten 70 helped secure a last ball NatWest T20 Blast win over the same opponents at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday.

In a rain-affected match, Lancashire chased 140 in 15 overs after slipping to 57-4 in the eighth.

Croft, leading the side in the absence of injured Tom Smith, ensured their North Division campaign started in ideal fashion.

Lancashire had to contend with losing the toss on a pitch offering some help for the seamers.

Karl Brown, opening the batting in place of Luis Reece, fell for 21 when he was caught behind off the bowling of Australian Clint McKay to leave the score at 41-1 after 13 overs.

Alviro Petersen followed the same way to Tom Wells with the score on 63, and things could have been a lot worse than 91-2 at lunch because three catches went down at first slip.

Ashwell Prince was dropped by Rob Taylor on six and 11 in successive overs from Ben Raine having seen Horton get a life on 20.

Horton and Prince shared 93 for the third wicket either side of lunch, and Lancashire were advancing nicely until Horton’s departure in the 47th over, caught behind off Wells, sparked a mini-collapse.

Prince (29) and Alex Davies fell lbw and caught behind to Charlie Shreck in the next over before Croft and Jordan Clark, with 44, counter-attacked with 73 inside 17 overs for the sixth wicket.

Clark was caught behind off Wells two balls into the evening before Tom Bailey chopped on to Raine – 254-7 after 70 overs.

Croft and Nathan Buck (25) shared 77 inside 19 overs for the eighth wicket before McKay got Buck caught at first slip immediately after a second interruption for bad light.

Simon Kerrigan was caught at third slip off Shreck in the day’s last over.