Haseeb Hameed (122) recorded his second century of the season, but Lancashire were made to work hard for a final-day draw against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in the Specsavers County Championship.
The Bolton batsman's second hundred in three Championship matches proved vital, as a nerve-shredding final day depended on the efforts of the 19-year-old opener, as well as the Red Rose captain Steven Croft, who battled for over three hours for his 34 not out from 141 deliveries to guide his side home with three wickets in hand.
Lancashire closed on 304/7 after Hameed and Tom Smith achieved 151 runs for the opening stand, but a nervous flurry of wickets after lunch put the game back in the balance when four wickets fell for just 29 runs following Hameed's career-best score of 122, an innings that lasted nearly five hours. The visitors slumped from the comfortable position of 209/1 to 223/5 in the afternoon session, putting Notts in the driving seat despite the efforts of Lancashire's opening partnership.
It was then up to Croft, the captain and wicketkeeper, to resist a rejuvenated Notts attack, one that was bolstered by the international class of Stuart Broad (2-45) and Imran Tahir. Croft's determination allowed Lancashire to secure a nine-point draw, with Jordan Clark's innings of 11 from 69 balls gaining an honourable mention in the grand scheme of a nail-bitting fixture.
The efforts of Smith and Hameed had taken Lancashire within 70 runs of levelling the scores with their overnight stand of 128 runs, with both batsmen recording half-centuries yesterday evening after Notts posted 474 and a lead of 198 runs. For the first hour of the day, their partnership continued to frustrate the hosts, without ever coming into any trouble from a potentially dangerous bowling attack.
Lancashire only added 23 runs in the first hour, which was enough to allow Smith and Hameed to take their partnership to 150 in 376 balls, with Smith beating the 70 he made in the first innings. However, he only just managed to get to 71 before the delivery of the session from Harry Gurney (2-82) ended the opening partnership at 151/1.
Smith edged a rising delivery from Gurney into the hands of Steven Mullaney at slip, but Luke Procter stepped up with a similarly determined approach, scoring 13 off 74 balls to add 58 runs for the second wicket either side of lunch. Having scored his maiden first-class century against Warwickshire 14 days ago, Hameed recorded his second hundred of the season in 237 balls, with this milestone helping to take Lancashire into the lead in the final over of the session.
Entering lunch on 206/1 with a slender lead of eight runs, Lancashire would have been relatively assured of their ability to bat for the rest of the fourth day to save the draw, but a devastating spell after the interval made Lancashire's draw anything but concrete. Overcast conditions, twinned with the hosts taking the new ball immediately after lunch, made the afternoon session an incredibly testing one for the visitors, with the Red Rose losing four wickets for the addition of 43 runs in the penultimate session of the match.
Nottinghamshire were able to call upon one of England's frontline wicket-takers in Broad to put them back in the picture, with his two wickets in four balls accounting for Procter and Alviro Petersen in the same over. First, Broad had Procter trapped lbw to end his defiant innings, before Petersen had his stumps decimated when he left a straight ball and was bowled for 4 having hit his first ball to the boundary.
Two quick wickets put a lot of pressure onto Hameed's young, yet perfectly capable shoulder's, but his marathon of an innings made it increasingly difficult to expect the 19-year-old to carry his bat. Having batted for nearly five hours and after facing 284 balls, Hameed's valiant knock came to an end, when he was the third wicket to fall for 22 runs.
Brett Hutton (2-48) struck two blows in the same over - the first over a new spell - encouraging Hameed to edge behind to Riki Wessels for a career-best 122, before getting one to stick in the pitch on Liam Livingstone (2), who could only fend his shot to Michael Lumb at mid-on. Hutton's dual success meant that Lancashire had fallen from 209/1 to 233/5, with Nottinghamshire now holding the edge on the approach to tea.
By the time tea arrived, captain Croft had already faced 73 balls, adding just nine runs with his side firmly in survival mode. He and Karl Brown (12) continued to watch the overs tick by in the hope of salvaging a draw, although Middlesex's innings win over Yorkshire at Scarborough meant that Lancashire would not be top of the table by the end of this round of matches.
Imran Tahir (1-93) swung the pendulum back in Nottinghamshire's favour when he forced a superb one-handed catch at short-leg by Brendan Taylor to remove Brown shortly after the break, with the onus now resting primarily with the Lancashire skipper. An attritional final day was typified by Croft and Clark's partnership for the seventh wicket, as they happily defended their way towards safety without any fear of how many runs they were accumulating, but instead, focusing solely on how many overs were left in the day, weighed up against the lead Lancashire were beginning to build.
Croft and Clark were able to take a crucial 18 overs out of the game with their rearguard approach, but the hosts threatened to throw a late twist into the equation when Gurney had Clark bowled for a determined 11 from 69 deliveries at 287/7. That final glimpse of success for Notts secured a valuable nine-point draw for the visitors, with Croft's unbeaten innings of 34 from 141 balls - as well as Hameed's earlier efforts - proving decisive on the final day.
Having hit back-to-back fours to take the lead beyond 100, the players shook hands at 5.40pm, with Lancashire's draw putting them one point behind Middlesex. Ashley Giles' side are not in action during the next round of matches, with their next red-ball outing coming against Durham at Southport on July 16.
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