Hampshire 548 for 6 dec (Smith 210, McLaren 81*) drew with Lancashire 387 (Petersen 98, Hameed 89, Procter 54, Dawson 3-63, Crane 3-87) and 98 for 3

Scorecard

Haseeb Hameed in defiant pose Getty Images

Hampshire's Liam Dawson bagged three evening wickets but could not stop Lancashire, led by a fifty from Haseeb Hameed, from batting out for a draw at the Ageas Bowl.

Left arm spinner Dawson gave Hampshire hope of the win but Hameed and Liam Livingstone saw the visitors to the end.

Hampshire remain cemented to the bottom of Division One, while Lancashire are in danger of being dragged in to a relegation dogfight with Surrey threatening to overtake them.

Hampshire were given some early hope of clutching a victory from the off, as leg spinner Mason Crane found exaggerated turn.

He took three of the six final Lancastrian first innings wickets with another tireless day twirling - bowling 48 and a half overs in the match.

Will Smith, Hampshire's captain, said: "In terms of the effort and desire to win was all we could ask. We probably created enough chances but that said you can't fault the effort, we have fielded for 210 overs in a row.

"Daws and Mason bowled 100 overs of them and bowled particularly well. We couldn't force the win but there are a lot of positives. "At times the pitch appeared docile but all of a sudden it would come to life. It was a wicket which suited us.

"Every game is important now. We have to approach the next five with a winning mentality. If we can come out with two wins we can climb the table."

Crane had night-watchman Simon Kerrigan caught behind to the last ball of the days' first over and later found a thick edge from Jordan Clark drop to Ryan McLaren at second slip.

In the afternoon he wrapped up the first innings by tempting Croft out his crease, stumped by the increasingly impressive Lewis McManus.

Ryan McLaren sent Liam Livingstone's off stump cartwheeling before Crane's spin twin Dawson grabbed tail scalps of Tom Moores and Kyle Jarvis.

With Lancashire 12 short of the follow on, Will Smith forced them to bat again and were left frustrated by openers Steven Croft and Hameed.

The pair retreated deeply within their shells - dot ball followed dot ball, as they used up 25 of the 58 remaining overs.

Dawson managed to get one top pop up with the first ball after tea, and Croft watched sullenly as it dropped into Gareth Andrew's paws at silly point - Dawson's 100th Specsavers County Championship wicket. Dawson managed to grab his fifth and sixth wickets of the afternoon - after only managing nine previously this season - soon after, as Lancashire threatened briefly to offer Hampshire a glimpse of winning the game.

Luke Procter pushed to Tom Alsop at silly mid-on, before Alviro Petersen fell in an identical fashion six overs later.

The stat that summed up the match, on a flat track, was the number of maidens bowled - over a full days' worth of 98.

But Hameed, unbeaten on 53 after his 142-ball half century, his second of the match, and Livingstone dropped anchor to avoid defeat - the captains eventually shaking hands with six left, the visitors still trailing by 63.