Steven Croft century lifts Lancashire towards first place in title race

Outground cricket continues to suit Lancashire as they pursue a first outright County Championship title since 1934. Five of their previous six home fixtures have produced positive results in an itinerant summer enforced by the redevelopment of Old Trafford, and on their first trip to the Fylde since 2008 they are well on the way to a fourth home win that would lift them above Durham at the top of the table. Worcestershire's close of play score represented a decent recovery from 21 for five, but they still need 56 to deny Lancashire the option of enforcing the follow-on. A seaming pitch, which had been cleared by the liaison officer, Chris Broad, when Lancashire were going well in the afternoon session, suddenly looked very tricky indeed as Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg exploited it more skilfully than the Worcestershire bowlers had managed after their captain, Daryl Mitchell, had won the toss. So by the close Steven Croft's 98-ball century was looking every bit as valuable as it had been entertaining and popular. Blackpool is Croft's club, and the 26-year-old has made a couple of weekend Northern League appearances at Stanley Park this season. He received a few beery cheers in reaching 13 out of 97 for four at lunch, and the volume from a 2,229 crowd grew steadily through the afternoon. He had one lucky escape, on 33, top-edging a hook at Alan Richardson, only for Worcestershire's 12th man, Nick Harrison, to lose the ball in the sun. Croft hit a couple more boundaries in the rest of Richardson's over and after reaching his 50 from 60 balls he launched into the spinners – taking one six off Moeen Ali and three more in two overs from Shaaiq Choudhry, a Yorkshire-born left-armer making his second championship appearance of the season following Saeed Ajmal's return to Pakistan. The last six completed Croft's second century in consecutive matches and his third in all, with the second 50 having come from only 38 deliveries. He was out for 107, edging one that reared at him from Aneesh Kapil's lively medium pace, and from 256 for five Lancashire's last five wickets fell for 26. But there were extenuating and encouraging circumstances – in addition to Croft's dismissal, Chapple and Hogg were both undone by balls from Gareth Andrew that seemed to hold up in the pitch. Inside 12 overs of Worcestershire's reply, five wickets had gone for 21 – and Lancashire's hopes of that elusive title were burning more brightly than ever. Croft resisted the temptation to celebrate in fitting fashion for a local hero – by going to watch Ian Holloway's Seasiders play Derby County at Bloomfield Road – instead attending a benefit dinner for Mark Chilton. Despite the late flurry from Andrew and Kapil, Worcestershire will do well to avoid a defeat that would boost Yorkshire's hopes of overtaking them in the battle to avoid relegation.