A COOL, grey, blustery afternoon at Old Trafford was accompanied by attritional fare on the pitch as Lancashire reached 165 for two from 59 overs at tea.

The wickets came in successive Scott Borthwick overs, but Paul Horton is still there on 113. His 20th first-class century was his second against Durham and came off 166 balls.

While not particularly swift that was positively fluent compared with his opening partner, Luis Reece, who contributed 36 to the stand of 138. He faced 124 balls and two of his four fours came off the edge before he nicked one to Paul Collingwood at slip.

Usman Khawaja made only two before driving a low return catch and Borthwick’s figures at tea were two for 60 from 24 overs.

Ryan Buckley, who bowled two overs just before lunch, has been off the field this afternoon, apparently feeling ill, and in the final over before tea Ben Stokes tried an over of off spin. As three balls were full tosses there wasn’t much opportunity for the ball to turn.

The only man to seriously trouble Horton in the afternoon was Chris Rushworth. In the haste to get Borthwick on he bowled only three overs in his opening spell and when he returned he had a good shout for lbw against Horton then beat him on 91.

The pitch looks surprisingly flat considering the alarms in the first session. It is only the rough outside a left-hander’s off stump which causes problems.