RECORD-breaking South African duo Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince led a dominant batting day for Lancashire during yesterday’s opening day of their top of table clash with Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay.

A seventh LV= County Championship win from 12 for the Division Two leaders over the third-placed Welshmen would all but secure their top flight return at the first attempt given they started the match 47 points clear.

Steven Croft won an important toss with two spinners in the team on a slow and low pitch, and Petersen against his former county and Prince excelled with 205 not out off 277 balls and 164 not out off 182 respectively as the Red Rose side closed on 425-2 from 96 overs.

Petersen made his third Championship century of the season and reached 13,000 first-class career runs overall. And for Prince, this was a fifth hundred of season and the ninth time he has passed 50 in 17 innings in this competition this summer.

They shared Lancashire’s second highest third-wicket partnership ever of 321 unbroken inside 63 overs and the best in matches between these two teams. It is also a ground record stand for that wicket.

After Paul Horton was trapped lbw by Michael Hogan in the seventh over, Petersen shared 98 inside 28 overs for the second wicket with Bolton’s Karl Brown, who made 54.

Brown, later bowled playing around one from seamer David Lloyd, has now scored six fifties in his last seven Championship innings added to three in his last four Twenty20 knocks.

Petersen and Prince, high school colleagues back in Port Elizabeth, then advanced the score from 104-2 in the 34th over, shortly after lunch, with a chanceless alliance.

Both men quickly found range and hit straight sixes off spinners Dean Cosker and Andrew Salter, with 41 runs coming in four overs between the 49th and 52nd overs as Lancashire moved to 192-2.

Petersen reached his hundred in the penultimate over of the evening off 163 balls, and when he reached 110 not out shortly after tea, he also reached the 13,000-mark.

These two shared 256 for the third-wicket at Southport in May’s win over Derbyshire, and they bettered that mark inside the final hour of play after Prince had reached a 132-ball ton.

Petersen even hit six fours in a seven-ball spell against seamer Lloyd shortly before posting his 200 off 264 balls.