Croft and Horton earn Lancashire draw.

Croft and Horton batted Lancashire to their sixth draw of the season.

Lancashire launched a rearguard action on the final day of their visit to Taunton to ensure that they would salvage a draw, as Steven Croft (59*) and Paul Horton (41*) shared an unbroken stand worth 92 runs for the sixth wicket.

Somerset started the fourth day needing all ten of Lancashire’s second-innings wickets, but fell comfortably short of their target as the visitors closed on 251-5 and the players shook hands at 5:00pm.

Following a successful finish to the third day, Alex Davies and Usman Khawaja resumed with Lancashire on 59-0, but it didn’t take long for Somerset to make the first breakthrough after Davies (41) edged behind off Alfonso Thomas (3-35), having added just three to his overnight score.

However, the morning session was largely successful from a Lancashire standpoint due to the 72-run partnership between Khawaja (60) and Ashwell Prince, as the visitors took plenty of time out of the match to frustrate Somerset.

Their partnership was a sign of things to come, as the pair took very few risks and opted to avoid using the bat whenever possible and Khawaja crawled his way to a 122-ball fifty, as he and Prince both played with the maturity expected of two international batsmen.

With a great deal of hard work behind them, the visitors needed to reach lunch unscathed in order to secure the strong position they had worked so hard for. However, when Khawaja was caught at short-leg off George Dockrell the afternoon session became an uphill task for Lancashire, a position which was compounded by the removal of Prince (22) just after the interval.

Prince’s dismissal utterly contradicted what had been a very responsible innings, as the South-African was comfortably stumped to supply Dockrell with an easy wicket and this scalp sparked something of a middle-order collapse as Lancashire lost four wickets for 22 runs.

Jos Buttler failed to make a significant contribution against his former side, swiping wildly outside the off-stump as he edged behind off Thomas for four and Tom Smith (3) fell in identical fashion as Lancashire were pegged back to 159-5.

Somerset flourished in the afternoon session, but Lancashire will also feel that most of the wickets they lost could have been avoided. Having been injured the previous day, Horton was forced to join Croft and the pair batted for the rest of the afternoon session to steady the innings.

After being hit on the back of the helmet, Horton would have been forgiven for batting with a certain degree of trepidation, but he assisted Croft with renewed confidence as Lancashire reached 212-5 at tea.

The evening session became a formality and the more overs that passed, the more uninterested Somerset became. This was typified when Peter Trego started to bowl spin and the fielders showed a deteriorating amount of encouragement to the bowlers, as Croft and Horton continued to frustrate the hosts.

Croft passed fifty for the fourth time in as many matches to continue a fine run of form and when he did so it became the final nail in Somerset’s coffin as the match was ended a draw.

Man of the match:

Paul Horton has become a senior figure in the Lancashire dressing room both on and off the field. His role as vice-captain has diverted attention away from an indifferent run of form, but in this match he delivered a superb 140 in Lancashire’s first innings, one which ultimately saved his side from defeat.

In the second innings, he batted with equal care and attention for the cause and after suffering a nasty blow to the back of the head, his unbeaten 41 was, arguably, just as commendable as he assisted an in-form Croft to earn Lancashire a draw.