Mark Wagh Piles on Pressure As Lancashire Watch the Clock

Three days into a match contested in scorching summer temperatures, the fastest representative of the Red Rose has been Peter Moores, Lancashire's coach, as he embarks upon a grueling jog around the boundary rope at close of play.

If Moores has aimed to clip the odd second off his running time (and someone going that fast at his age is bound to secretly time it) it has been nothing compared to the way that Lancashire have been intent upon running down the clock since the end of the first day. If they bat out the final day today, they would take draw points away from Trent Bridge with grim satisfaction.

It will take a few monotonous draws for Lancashire to secure their First Division status, and they have an evens chance of making this one of them, although Paul Horton's needless run out in the six overs before the close, when he wrongly imagined there might be a single to Mark Wagh at square leg, has not assisted their cause.

Moores has inherited an eager, but limited championship squad and two defeats last month against Durham and HampshIre, when they were fortunate to have Andrew Flintoff at their disposal, have probably molded their season.

Against Nottinghamshire, whose second place to Durham speaks of loftier ambitions, they lack not only Flintoff and James Anderson, something to which they are accustomed, but also Sajid Mahmood, who is on Lions duty.

Those left were up against it as Notts' second innings rattled along at 4.3 runs an over, Mark Wagh struck 131 from 177 balls and David Hussey (74 from 78) stroked the ball around in untroubled fashion for the second time in the match. It felt a bit colourless but the crowd was happy enough at the home dominance. Only Trent Bridge's brilliant-white stands have been glaring.

It might have been different had Lancashire made good their work on the first morning, which left Notts 116 for 4 but they conceded 388 and a solid but unspectacular attack have laboured ever since. On the first evening Luke Sutton grumbled that Ryan Sidebottom, a likelier England Ashes call-up than Mahmood, was available for Notts. On the second evening, with the match at its mid-point, Mal Loye indicated that a draw would be quite enough. It was too depressing to go and listen third time around, in case Lancashire revealed that there would be a prize for the batsman who could play out most maidens.

Mahmood's Lions involvement ahead of Sidebottom might not be to Red Rose tastes but it is logical enough. There is no purpose in allowing Australia a look at Sidebottom, who might have a workmanlike role to play, at Edgbaston perhaps, later in the Ashes summer. Mahmood, though, is a work in progress, requiring repeated assessment, not all of it favorable.

Sidebottom might have begun to question the sense of England's policy by the start of his 21st over, at which point he had still not taken a wicket. His mop of hair must have weighed as heavily as a winter duvet, he developed a bit of a midsummer stoop and would not looked favorably upon a speed gun. His mood lightened when he had Sutton caught at the wicket and bowled Glen Chapple, but it might darken again by the time this match is through.