Lancs title hopes rocked by draw

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Old Trafford:
Durham 270 and 320-6dec drew with Lancashire 265 and 163-4 (Lancs 9pts, Durham 9pts)
11-14 August 2009

Match scorecard

Lancashire's outside hopes of winning the Championship were all but ended as they failed to beat leaders Durham.

Set a tough 326 to win at Old Trafford, Lancashire got off to a nightmare start when they slumped to 4-3, Graham Onions taking two of the wickets.

Onions then picked up another wicket on 56-4 when he had prize scalp VVS Laxman caught behind for 23.

But Mark Chilton (79) and Francois du Plessis (54) stopped the rot before bad light brought an early finish on 163-4.

The high points of the day, as far as the England selectors were concerned, were the two fiery five-over spells from Onions, who ended with 3-39 from his 10 overs.

After Durham had added 64 runs to declare on 320-6, he had Paul Horton snared at point for 3 and then produced a beauty to have Mal Loye caught behind for a third-ball duck.

Onions then returned after lunch to claim the key wicket of Laxman, who played a little crookedly and was caught behind.

Chilton and du Plessis then put up the shutters to ensure that Ian Blackwell failed to repeat his first innings wicket-taking on a track which got slower as the game wore on, the Durham left-arm spinner finishing with 0-56 from 25 overs.

Chilton batted particularly well to make 79 off 169 deliveries but Du Plessis's 119-ball 54 was not far behind in terms of class and fluency.

And the form of the two batsmen was a welcome sign for Lancashire's injury-hit squad as they prepare for next Wednesday's Roses match at Headingley.

Durham, meanwhile, will take their current 28-point lead back to the Riverside, where they meet Warwickshire the same day.

Stand-in Lancashire skipper Luke Sutton told BBC Radio Manchester:

"For us to stand any chance, Durham would have to now slip up pretty badly.

"We're some way of contending for the title. We're going to have to start winning and they'd have to seriously lose some.

"But we're still in a good position in the Championship table and there's still some cricket to go.

"It was an excellent game of cricket but you're never totally sat with a draw."