AN attritional day of cricket saw Lancashire's championship match against Middlesex heading for draw.

The game looked set to finish in stalemate after neither seemed keen to take it by the scruff of neck yesterday.

A slow pitch, which took increasing amounts of turn, made scoring difficult and the opening session saw just 91 runs scored in 40 overs.

It didn't help Lancashire's cause that the two batsmen most likely to dominate the bowling, Stuart Law and Carl Hooper fell early.

Both were undone by the off-spin of Jamie Dalrymple, who started to turn the ball considerably from the Stretford End.

After lunch Mal Loye fell just two runs short of his second century of the season. He got stuck in the 90s and sliced Nantie Hayward to point trying to bring up his ton.

A late collapse against the new ball, taken after 126 overs, saw Lancashire's lead limited to 35 but James Anderson struck early to remove first innings centurion Sven Koenig.

Shah was looking in great form and it wasn't until the last ball of the day that another wicket fell, Anderson again striking to trap Ben Hutton leg before.