Resolute batting by Lancashire’s Luke Wells and Tom Hartley frustrated Gloucestershire’s bowlers and helped ensure that the County Championship match at Old Trafford ended in a draw.
The visitors declared on their overnight score of 589-8, giving them a lead of 139, and when they reduced the home side to 160-6 half an hour before tea, they looked well placed to beat Lancashire for the first time since 2015.
But Wells and Hartley shared an seventh-wicket partnership of 69 in 28 overs either side of tea and the game ended at just before 18:00 BST when Lancashire were 255-8 and had a lead of 116 with only eight overs left in the match.
Hartley was caught by James Bracey off Ajeet Singh Dale for 37 but that wicket fell just before players shook hands with Tom Bailey on nine not out and Saqib Mahmood unbeaten on nought. For Gloucestershire, Tom Price ended the day with 3-52 and Graeme van Buuren took 3-36
Gloucestershire take 13 points from the game to Lancashire’s 12 but that hardly reflects the difference in the quality of the cricket played by the sides, particularly on the last two days of the game.
Having declared this morning with a lead of 139, Gloucestershire were rewarded for their enterprise when they dismissed both Lancashire openers inside the first dozen overs of their side’s second innings.
George Bell departed for 28 when his waft outside the off stump to a ball from Tom Price only edged a catch to Cameron Bancroft, the only slip.
Two balls later, Keaton Jennings joined his opening partner in the pavilion when he was beaten by Singh Dale’s nip off the pitch and Bancroft took his second catch when fielding at a conventional second slip.
That left Lancashire on 50-2, still 89 runs in arrears, and things got worse for the home side 15 minutes before lunch when a flighted ball from Van Buuren tempted Marcus Harris out of his crease and Bracey completed the stumping.
Lancashire were 89-3 when Harris departed for 24 but Josh Bohannon and Matty Hurst cleared Lancashire’s deficit and had built a mere four-run lead before both were dismissed by Tom Price and the game was tossed into the hazard once more.
Hurst was the first to go when having made 33 in 72 minutes, he inside-edged a ball onto his leg stump; four overs later Bohannon pushed a little tentatively at a delivery that seemed to bounce more than he was expecting and was caught at slip by Bancroft for 30.
Lancashire’s lead was only 13 when Bohannon was dismissed and it had been increased to only 21 when George Balderson was caught behind by Bracey off Van Buuren for two.
But Wells and Hartley took their side to tea on 178-6 and the eighth-wicket pair then inched Lancashire to safety on the resumption, extending their partnership to 69 before Wells was caught behind off Van Buuren for 36.
The result means that all three Championship games at Old Trafford this season have been drawn with the visiting team only batting once on each occasion.
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