KENT’S batsmen offered stubborn resistance to Lancashire’s bowlers after being forced to follow on during the third morning of their LV= Division Two match at Emirates Old Trafford — but the visitors still need 44 runs to make Steven Croft’s team bat again.

At the close, Kent were 148-3 with Brendan Nash on 18 and Sam Northeast unbeaten on 11.

In the first session of the day the visitors had been bowled out for 252, thereby conceding a deficit of 192 runs, and Croft had no hesitation in enforcing the follow on.

Resuming on 214-7, the visitors suffered their first reverse when Mitch Claydon was caught in the gully by Ashwell Prince off Peter Siddle for 21.

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On 55, Northeast hooked Kyle Jarvis to long leg where Siddle took a straightforward catch. Adam Riley was pouched at slip by Paul Horton off Simon Kerrigan for six to end the innings after just over an hour’s play. Jarvis finished with 4-50 and Siddle claimed 2-57 and Kerrigan 2-27.

Kent’s openers added 34 runs without mishap before lunch but Lancashire’s bowlers enjoyed their first success in the third over after the resumption when Daniel Bell-Drummond’s defensive push only edged a ball from Jordan Clark to wicket-keeper Alex Davies.

The opener was dismissed for 18 but Croft’s team had to wait nearly 20 overs for their next wicket, that of Rob Key, who was bowled middle stump by a full-length ball from Siddle when he had made 34 out of a second-wicket partnership of 72 with Joe Denly.

Lancashire used seven bowlers in the afternoon and were made to work hard. But a vital breakthrough came with the first ball after the break when Denly, having batted 176 minutes and faced 127 balls for his 60, was leg before to a delivery from Jarvis which came back off the pitch.

Rain arrived at 4.30pm, preventing play for 110 minutes. In the tricky four-over late-evening session that followed the resumption Nash and Northeast added six runs without mishap.