Keedy's strike too late for Lancashire

Lancashire 309 and 238-8 dec

Notts 292 and 172-8

Match drawn

Lancashire lost too much time to the elemental forces of nature, the rain and the batting of Tim Robinson, to have a realistic chance of winning their fourth consecutive Championship match.

They showed what formidable opponents they will be in all competitions this season, however, by clinging tenaciously to their hopes of victory until the final couple of balls.

When Gary Keedy dismissed James Hindson and Andy Pick in the last over, Lancashire needed two more wickets off the final two deliveries. It was too much to ask, of course, but how they must have regretted the 35 minutes they had lost to a delayed start in the morning.

Lancashire were already unlikely to force a result before that hold-up, but they added another 128 runs to allow themselves to declare with eight wickets down. Even before Keedy's late drama, it was a day for connoisseurs of left-arm spin, with Andy Afford and Hindson, who finished with five for 71, doing the bulk of the work for Nottinghamshire.

Faced with a target of 256 in a minimum of 54 overs, their colleagues showed little inclination to pursue it.

Robinson, the centurion of their first innings, survived a chance on one when Mike Watkinson, perhaps concerned over the message relayed from the balcony that his beloved Bolton Wanderers were 2-0 down at Wembley, put him down in the gully off Glen Chapple.

Robinson had already lost his opening partner, Mathew Dowman, and saw the departure of Jon Wileman and Paul Johnson before an uncharacteristic rush of blood sent him charging at Keedy to be stumped.

When Chris Cairns and Wayne Noon followed their captain, Lancashire sensed an opportunity, but Kevin Evans and Hindson seemed to have steadied the ship before the flurry of activity in the last over.

What had been effectively reduced to a three-day game ended just a little too soon for a side failing to win in the Championship for the first time this season.