Rain spoils Lancashire hopes

Lancashire 320 and 177 for 3 drew with Kent 213 and 45 for 2
Scorecard

Lancashire's best efforts to defeat Kent were beaten by the persistent showers at Old Trafford as the County Championship Division One match ended in a draw.

Needing an improbable 285 to win, Rob Key's team had reached 45 for 2 when the rain finally closed in and the game was eventually abandoned at 3.45pm.

Although only 11.5 overs were possible on the final day, Lancashire's Sajid Mahmood still managed to rough up four Kent batsmen and claimed two wickets in a hostile spell either side of lunch.

The England fast bowler produced a quick, accurate delivery which burst through Joe Denly's loose defence and then found the edge of Geraint Jones' bat, Paul Horton completing the dismissal with an excellent catch at first slip.

In between those successes, Glen Chapple had offered home supporters hope of further breakthroughs when he extracted plenty of life from the Old Trafford pitch and beat Key on a number of occasions.

Indeed, Kent appeared so concerned about the state of the wicket and the dangers posed by Chapple and Mahmood with the new ball that they promoted Matt Coles up the order as a ``lunch-watchman''. The 19-year-old had batted as well as anyone except Darren Stevens in the first innings and he enhanced his reputation again by making a composed 10 not out.

Earlier, rain had prevented play for 90 minutes in the morning session and Chapple immediately declared on Lancashire's overnight total of 177 for 3 once the weather relented.

That left Ashwell Prince undefeated on 71, giving the South African an aggregate of 186 for a match in which he had offered further proof of his high class and excellent temperament. Lancashire took nine points from the game but Kent will only take six after losing one of their seven points due to a slow over rate.