LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Edgbaston:
CLOSE OF PLAY, DAY THREE: Lancashire 354 & 199 beat Warwickshire 113 & 375 by 65 runs
Lancashire 23 pts, Warwickshire 3 pts
Match scorecard

Jonathan Trott hit his first ton since the Ashes decider at The Oval last August

Lancashire secured their third County Championship win of the season, as they ended Jonathan Trott's resistance to beat Warwickshire by 65 runs.

Trott added 48 more to his overnight score to be last out for 150.

And Neil Carter, the Bears' only man in double figures in the first innings, again weighed in with valuable runs, making a typically rapid 73.

But, in the end, Warwickshire were bowled out for for 375 just after lunch to cement Lancashire's place in third.

Warwickshire resumed still needing an unlikely 178 to win with only four wickets remaining - and a lot resting on England Test hopeful Trott's shoulders.

But it was Trott's Test colleague Jimmy Anderson and fellow England paceman Saj Mahmood who proved their side's matchwinners with two wickets apiece.

Mahmood ended Carter's 73 off 92 balls before returning to account for Trott, either side of Anderson having both Imran Tahir and Lancastrian Andrew Miller caught behind.

Warwickshire were challenged to make 441, the highest fourth-innings total in their history, and briefly threatened to reach that target.

Trott and Neil Carter put on 102 in 26 overs in a defiant seventh-wicket stand which denied Lancashire their first breakthrough of the day until half an hour before lunch.

Trott, who had completed his first Championship century of the season on Wednesday, was content to play a sensible supporting role, contributing only 24 to the stand with Carter, who made his third half-century in six Championship innings,

But, once Carter went to Mahmood's slower-ball yorker, having been dropped at long leg by Ashwell Prince on 62, the chase faltered. And Trott was last out, caught on the mid-wicket boundary.

The BBC's Lancashire correspondent Scott Read said:

Lancashire skipper Glen Chapple doesn't appear to like receiving praise. It's all about the team - and a winning team at that. But he led by example here.

But other factors must not be overlooked, especially Saj Mahmood's 72 in Lancashire's second innings. What vital runs they turned out to be. And his dismissal of Neil Carter to break the partnership with the superb Jonathon Trott.

It's now 15 County Championship games since Lancashire lost, dating back to last season - not a bad habit to have got into. And three wins from five this summer is an even better one.

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