Nottinghamshire win hopes are wrecked by rain

At the end of the match Lancashire were 120 without loss with Keaton Jennings on 37 not out and Alex Davies unbeaten on 69.

Nottinghamshire took 16 points from the game to Lancashire nine and both sides will almost certainly now need to win their last two games to stand any chance of qualifying for the final at Lord’s on September 23.

The untroubled ease with which Lancashire’s batsmen secured the draw on a blameless pitch made something of a contrast to their first innings, which ended 90 minutes into the first session with Dane Vilas’s side forced to follow on 299 runs behind after being bowled out for 173.

In the morning it had taken Nottinghamshire nearly an hour to take their first wicket of the day when Steven Croft, having reached his fifty off 103 balls, could only fend Tom Barber’s excellent bouncer to substitute fielder, Liam Patterson-White, in the gully.

Croft’s departure for 59 brought Luke Wood to the wicket, along with the Lancashire skipper, Vilas, who was running for Wood to prevent him further damaging his injured hamstring.

However, Vilas was only in the middle for 25 minutes before Wood skied a low full toss from Barber to Ben Slater at short leg and departed for six. Tom Bailey hit his first ball for four but was caught at second slip by Ben Duckett when slashing at his second.

In the next over Liam Hurt was caught by Tom Moores off Peter Trego for a single and Lancashire had lost their last three wickets for five runs in eight balls.

Tom Hartley, who is playing in his second first-class match, was left unbeaten on 13. The 22-year-old had batted longer and faced more balls than anyone else in the innings except Croft.

Trego finished with three for 33, Barber three for 42 and Zak Chappell three for 48.

Nottinghamshire took eight bonus points from the game to Lancashire’s one and dominated this match for most of the first seven sessions. Nevertheless.