BOLTON’s Karl Brown hit a polished 96 to help Lancashire turn the screw against Leicestershire after two days of their LV= County Championship match at Emirates Old Trafford.

The right-hander, 27, passed 50 for the third time in three innings as the Red Rose responded strongly to Leicester’s 207 all out to close on 314-4 from 96 overs.

But, having hit 14 fours and a six in 231 balls, he missed out on a first four-day hundred since the opening round of 2011.

Brown shared in partnerships of 91 inside 32 overs with opening partner Paul Horton, 83 inside 25 for the second wicket with Alviro Petersen and 74 inside 19 with Ashwell Prince, who will resume this morning unbeaten on 74 not out off 110 balls.

Brown has passed 50 on 16 occasions in the Championship since making 114 against Sussex in the year Lancashire won the Division One title.

This was by no means the fluent innings the former Atherton player is capable of, but he watchfully compiled his runs as others batted around him.

Horton made 54 off 104 balls, his 50th first-class fifty to go with 21 hundreds, before being victim of a stunning one-handed catch at second slip from Andrea Agathangelou off left-arm seamer Rob Taylor in the final over before lunch.

Agathangelou completed a head high catch diving full length to his right.

Brown and Petersen, who made 46, advanced from 91-1 through the majority of the afternoon with the minimum of fuss against an attack which started off tidily before lunch yet failed to maintain the pressure.

Off-spinner Jigar Naik and new ball pair Atif Sheikh and Ben Raine bowled successive maidens in the early stages of the day.

Naik broke the second-wicket stand when he had Petersen lbw as he stepped across his crease and tried to glance to leg, leaving Lancashire at 174-2 in the 57th over.

Lancashire moved into the lead during the third over of the evening, the 68th, but Brown was trapped lbw by Raine in the 76th as the score fell to 248-3.

Prince and Steven Croft then shared 55 inside 12 overs for the fourth wicket, meaning it was the first time Lancashire’s first four wickets have each added 50 or more in an innings since 2007.

Naik had Croft caught at mid-off inside the final hour of play.