George Bartlett made a fighting 92 in two minutes short of four hours to help Northamptonshire post a competitive 284 on the second day of their Rothesay County Championship match against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

And the visitors then made vital breakthroughs late in the day to leave Lancashire on 68 for two when bad light curtailed play at just after 7.00pm. A victory in this match would bolster Northamptonshire’s hopes of winning promotion in what is a tightly contested division.

Lancashire supporters could be encouraged by the bowling of George Balderson, who took four for 70 and by the resolution shown by the opening pair, Keaton Jennings and Marcus Harris in putting on 45 in difficult conditions before Harris fell to Luke Procter.

In the morning session, Northamptonshire’s overnight pair, Procter and Nathan McSweeney, added 26 runs in 50 untroubled minutes before the visitors lost three wickets in 27 balls. Two of them were taken by Walkden, who trapped McSweeney leg-before for 20, and four overs later, bowled Saif Zaib for three with a good ball that evaded a loose drive.

Sandwiched between those breakthroughs, Procter departed for 39 when his cover-drive off Tom Bailey skewed to Arav Shetty at point. But James Sales and Bartlett staunched the flow of wickets and took their side safely to 134 for five at lunch.

Lancashire broke the sixth-wicket partnership with the eighth ball after lunch when Sales felt for a ball outside the off stump and edged to Joe Moores on 19. That success, though, was the prelude to an enterprising 91-run stand between Bartlett and Lewis McManus which had hoisted Northamptonshire’s total to 225 before McManus was caught at slip by Harris, thus giving the slow left-armer his first wicket for Lancashire.

By then, though, Bartlett had reached his fourth fifty of the season and Northamptonshire reached tea usefully placed on 248 for seven. Liam Guthrie and Ben Sanderson fell to Balderson and Bailey in successive overs shortly after the resumption but Bartlett hit both bowlers during a last-wicket stand of 27 with Yuzi Chahal before he hit Balderson to Jennings at deepish cover and fell eight runs short of a deserved century. Balderson took four for 70 and was the pick of the Lancashire attack but Walkden also impressed on debut and finished with three for 33 from 13 overs.

In Lancashire’s reply, Harris was dropped on eight by Bartlett at third slip off Guthrie in the sixth over and had put on 45 with Jennings before he was caught behind off Procter for 25. Josh Bohannon was then leg before to Ben Sanderson for just four but Jennings and Shetty had taken their side to 68 for two by the time bad light ended play seven overs early with Jennings on 16 not out and Shetty unbeaten on 13.