Wickets continue to tumble at Old Trafford

Wickets continued to tumble on the second day at Old Trafford with some precious late runs from Neil Fairbrother and Chris Schofield just about keeping Lancashire in the box seat.

They were in danger of squandering a strong position provided by five wickets from Peter Martin when they slumped to 43 for six in their second innings.

But Fairbrother and Schofield responded with a seventh wicket stand of 53 in 22 overs. And after Fairbrother went for a grafting 43, lbw to Matthew Walker's first ball of the match, Schofield was joined by a third left-hander, Gary Keedy, to take Lancashire to 110 for seven, with a lead of 191, when bad light and rain forced a slightly early close.

Earlier Walker and Alan Wells had led a Kent recovery from 14 for four to 127 for five, sharing a fifth wicket stand of 75 - still the best of the match.

But Martin's return triggered a collapse as Kent's last five wickets fell for 28, and the last three all went with the score on 155.

The 31-year-old former England paceman had taken five for 44 in his last Championship bowl, against Derbyshire at the end of May, before having his right thumb broken by a nasty rising delivery from Dominic Cork.

Today he ended with five for 42, the 14th five-wicket haul of his career taking his tally of Championship wickets in an injury-ravaged season to 23 at an average of less than 12.

But David Masters led a strong Kent response, bowling John Crawley with a ball which shot along the floor then having Mark Chilton and Sourav Ganguly caught at second slip in an impressive opening burst.

Martin McCague weighed in with the wickets of Joe Scuderi and Warren Hegg with consecutive balls before Fairbrother led Lancashire's recovery.