Alex Davies squeezes in an unbeaten half-century before weather wins out

Alex Davies notched a fourth half-century of the season before torrential rain condemned Northamptonshire's LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Lancashire to an inevitable draw at Wantage Road.

Only 38 balls were possible following a delayed start, but Lancashire's diminutive opener made the most of the small window in the weather to reach his landmark with a gorgeous cover drive for four, his sixth boundary in a 105-ball stay.

It didn't come a moment too soon as just three balls later the heavens opened driving the players from the field with Lancashire 88 for 1 and Davies 51 not out.

The cloudburst didn't last long, but the cumulative affect of the rain throughout the game, rendered a restart impossible. It meant only 34.3 overs had been possible across all four days of this encounter, the second of which was washed out without a ball being bowled.

Both sides take eight points each for the draw, enough to move the visitors top of Group 3 ahead of next week's Roses clash with Yorkshire at Old Trafford.

Northamptonshire remain fourth ahead of their visit to Hove to face Sussex, where, weather permitting, they badly need a win to keep alive hopes of being among the six counties chasing the Championship laurels in September.

Lancashire skipper Dane Vilas lamented the fact that James Anderson didn't get a chance to bowl in this match before joining the England squad for their two-Test series against New Zealand starting next week.

"It's terrible when you come to a ground like this, see such a nice pitch and then you don't get much cricket on it," Vilas said. "Guys like Jimmy needed overs. That was the main thing for him going towards the Test match.

"We won't have Jimmy against Yorkshire - he'll be back in the England bubble on Friday, but we have a good stable of fast bowlers who as always have learnt a lot from him.

"The bowlers have had a heavy workload this season with the schedule, but saying that we had a week off last week and now this game here. We've topped up with a few overs in the mornings in the indoor centre and we're fresh and ready for the next two games."

Adam Rossington, the Northamptonshire captain, said: "The weather has beaten us. The ground-staff have been fantastic doing their best to get us on when they could, but just one of those things.

"I think the closer we get to the end of this section of the competition teams might be trying to set up some run chases to get results. We have got to get first-innings runs which will be the key to setting up those games."