This slow-burner of a game came alight on the final day and, after four days of ebb and flow, all results were still possible at the start of the final over. With Dimitri Mascarenhas at the crease and Hampshire seven wickets down, they needed 15 from the last six balls, always likely to be a tough task with every Lancashire fielder on the boundary and Glen Chapple bowling well wide of off stump. Hampshire managed only five, falling ten runs short in their pursuit of 225 from 71 overs. Ultimately, they left themselves with too much to do after losing early wickets.

But for a side who need to haul themselves up the table, this could go down as a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. With six overs remaining, Hampshire needed 33 with four wickets in hand. Mascarenhas and Chris Tremlett were well set and, at this point, they could have chanced their arms and then, if need be, shut up shop for the last few overs. Instead, fearful of their team’s long tail, they waited until 22 were needed from the final two overs, by which time it was too late.

Perhaps that betrayed the lack of confidence in a side that had lost its previous three games, but if Shane Warne had still been Hampshire captain, it would have been difficult to imagine such an approach. “The problem was with our lower-order batting,” Mascarenhas, the captain, said. “I thought that the shorter amount of overs we had to go hard, the better.”

It was a shame, because Hampshire had battled after being reduced to 63 for four on a worn last-day pitch. At tea, they had recovered to 117 for four, needing a further 108 from 32 overs, with Chris Benham and Nic Pothas going well in a diligent fifth-wicket stand of 83 that ended when Pothas edged a cut off Gary Keedy.

Then Mascarenhas, on two, drove to cover, where Steven Croft scooped up the ball and claimed the catch. There was a protracted stand-off as Mascarenhas refused to walk, with Lancashire suggesting that he should take Croft’s word, but Graham Burgess, the umpire, ruled that the ball had not carried. “I thought it didn’t carry, Crofty thought it did and the umpire said he was pretty sure it bounced,” Mascarenhas said. “So he should have just said ‘not out’ and it wouldn’t have caused any hassle.”

Benham played with great skill for his 64, his second half-century of the match, but when he sliced Sajid Mahmood to point with 53 still needed from 12 overs, those fears of defeat began to creep into Hampshire’s minds.

A victory for Lancashire would have taken them to the top of the table, but the draw has lifted them to second place, while Hampshire have moved off the bottom. Better still for Hampshire, they have signed a leg spinner, Imran Tahir, who took 12 wickets in his first championship match for them and could be a real asset in the battle to avoid relegation.

Lancashire: First Innings 357 (P J Horton 66, L Vincent 58, F du Plessis 57, S G Law 51; Imran Tahir 5 for 123)
Second Innings (overnight 121-7)
L D Sutton c Tremlett b Tahir 8
G Keedy c Brown b Tahir 15
D G Cork c Crawley b Tahir 6
S I Mahmood not out 8
Extras (b 4, lb 6, w 1) 11
Total (72.2 overs)155

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-16, 3-49, 4-54, 5-98, 6-107, 7-116, 8-131, 9-138.

Bowling: Tremlett 17-7-25-1; Balcombe 14-2-32-2; Tahir 30.2-11-66-7; Tomlinson 8-2-12-0; Ervine 3-0-10-0.

Hampshire: First Innings 288 (C C Benham 89, M J Brown 76)
Second Innings
S M Ervine c Sutton b Cork 25
M J Brown lbw b Chapple 0
J P Crawley c Sutton b Chapple 0
M J Lumb c Law b Keedy 27
C C Benham c du Plessis b Mahmood 64
N Pothas c Sutton b Keedy 35
*A D Mascarenhas not out 25
C T Tremlett run out 15
D J Balcombe not out 4
Extras (lb 10, w 2, nb 8) 20
Total (7 wkts, 71 overs) 215

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-17, 3-26, 4-63, 5-146, 6-172, 7-203.

Bowling: Chapple 18-3-48-2; Mahmood 19-6-59-1; Keedy 23-7-62-2; Cork 7-2-22-1; Du Plessis 4-0-14-0.

Umpires: J F Steele and G I Burgess.