Lancashire survive final-day scare to earn draw at Hampshire

Lancashire negotiated a testing final day at the Ageas Bowl to earn a seven-point draw against Hampshire in the Specsavers County Championship.

The visitors were made to follow on after being dismissed for 387 - losing six wickets for 77 runs on the final day - but Lancashire negated a turgid spell in their second innings to finish on 98/3 after 52 overs before the players shook hands on a draw.

Skipper Steven Croft played a vital hand in the first innings, batting for over three hours in total for his 78, before he opened with Haseeb Hameed (53*) in the second innings to see Lancashire to tea unscathed. Lancashire then lost Croft with the first ball after tea, before Luke Procter and Alviro Petersen followed in quick succession, but Hameed registered his second half-century of the match - and his eighth of the summer - to ensure that the Red Rose walked away with a hard-fought draw.

Hampshire rested their final-day hopes on the pitch taking spin and both Liam Dawson and Mason Crane prospered at various stages on the fourth day. The former took three wickets in both innings to give bottom-of-the-table Hampshire a small chance of forcing victory, but a stoic display from both Croft and Hameed in testing conditions allowed Lancashire to avoid what would have been a damaging defeat.

Crane (3-87) struck in the first over of the day to remove nightwatchman Simon Kerrigan for his overnight score of 3 when he edged behind to Lewis McManus six balls into the final day. Resuming on 41, Croft reached his fifty in 110 deliveries, but wickets continued to fall at the other end, with Liam Livingstone (1) shouldering arms to Ryan McLaren (1-58).

Hampshire enjoyed a confidence-boosting morning session, taking four wickets at the expense of only 61 runs to set the nerves racing in the Lancashire dressing room. Jordan Clark (11) attempted to drive at a delivery from Crane, but his leg-spin took the ball away from the right-hander and he edged to McLaren at second slip with the score at 333/7.

Lancashire still needed 66 more runs to avoid the follow on, with their hopes resting solely on captain Croft, who had batted for two sessions by the time he reached lunch unbeaten on 68. A useful partnership between Croft and Tom Moores (18) worth 38 runs took Lancashire a long way towards avoiding the follow on but - for the second day in a row - Lancashire lost a wicket in the final over before lunch.

Moores, who had earlier swept Crane for six, was bowled by Dawson with the first ball of the final over to send Lancashire into the lunch interval on 371/8, still 28 runs short of making Hampshire bat again. Kyle Jarvis (6) fell in the fourth over after lunch when he edged to Will Smith at first slip off Dawson (3-63), as the Hampshire spinners continued to extract enough turn out of the wicket to give Lancashire a nervous conclusion to the match.

Croft was then stumped by McManus for 78 to hand Crane his third scalp of the innings, as Lancashire were bowled out for 387 and forced to follow on 12 runs short of forcing Hampshire to bat for a second time. After facing 192 deliveries in the first innings, the Lancashire skipper took it upon himself to assist the typically defiant Hameed in his quest to thwart Hampshire's renewed optimism and the pair took Lancashire to tea without losing any wickets in their second innings.

Lancashire were forced to play fairly unattractive cricket to secure the draw on the final day, but with the wicket now offering assistance to the spin bowlers, Hampshire were enjoying the best bowling conditions of the match. The first of seven boundaries to be hit by Hameed took the teenage batsman into double-figures after he had faced 73 balls, with Croft continuing in the same vein in the first innings by blocking out a new-ball spell from McLaren and latterly the tandem spin duo of Dawson and Crane.

Reaching tea unscathed at 37/0 after 25 overs represented a determined response from Lancashire after a disappointing morning session with the bat, but a nervy spell after tea re-established Hampshire's faith that they could force an unlikely victory. Croft departed immediately after the break when he pushed forward to Dawson and was caught in close by Gareth Andrew for 22 off 70 balls, with Procter (5) and Petersen following in similarly tame fashion shortly afterwards.

Procter fended Dawson to Tom Alsop at short-leg and Dawson - who took all three of Lancashire's second-innings wickets  - then had Petersen caught by Andrew for 4 to leave the visitors in a spot of bother at 61/3. However, Hameed and Livingstone (13*) batted for nearly 19 overs together for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand to revoke Hampshire's faith and earn a draw for Lancashire, who are now sixth in Division One ahead of the Roses clash at Old Trafford, which starts on Saturday.