Lancs take control on back of top duo

CHRIS Green and Tom Hartley produced record-breaking performances with the bat as Lancashire assumed the upper hand on day two of the Rothesay County Championship Second Division match against Gloucestershire at the College Ground, Cheltenham.

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Both made their highest individual first-class scores, Green raising a superb 160 from 199 balls with 13 fours and 8 sixes and Hartley 130 via 153 deliveries with 14 fours and 6 sixes as the red rose county posted a formidable 557 in their first innings.

Together, the pair staged Lancashire's biggest ever ninth-wicket partnership of 212, eclipsing a longstanding record set by Australians Les Poidevine and Alexander Kermode in a match against Sussex in Eastbourne way back in 1907.

Opening-day centurion Matty Hurst made a career-best 106, while Gloucestershire seamer Zaman Akhter and spinner Graeme van Buuren claimed figures of 4-85 and 3-117 respectively.