DURHAM'S overnight declaration, possibly prompted by the threat of showers, left Lancashire to score 325 to win and after a flying start they slipped to 105 for five at lunch.

While Alviro Petersen was progressing serenely to 24 the visitors might have fancied their chances of a third win from four if the rain stays away.

But his exit sparked the fall of three wickets for three runs, the first two to Brydon Carse.

He found a little extra bounce and in readjusting his intended cut Petersen steered a catch straight to backward point.

In Carse's next over left-hander Luke Procter's edged drive flew very fast to the right of second slip, where Scott Borthwick held an excellent catch.

Then the luck of the Irish struck again as skipper Steven Croft flung his bat at a short, wide one from Barry McCarthy and edged to Michael Richardson.

Although they lost Haseeb Hameed to the 12th ball of the innings, lbw to James Weighell, Lancashire had 46 on the board after five overs thanks largely to Graham Onions feeding Keith Brown easy leg-side runs.

Brown had hit eight of the ten fours at that point and added one more before Onions finally hit the spot and had him lbw for 41, made off 26 balls.