Hoggard stars with bat as Yorkshire earn Roses draw

Matthew Hoggard, the England seam bowler, secured a famous and highly unlikely Roses draw for Yorkshire against Lancashire at Headingley with a display of determination with the bat.

Hoggard, who has often performed well as nightwatchman for his country, hung around to frustrate Yorkshire's old enemy in their County Championship Second Division fixture on Saturday.

On a day which saw Durham go further clear at the top of the table, Hoggard hit an unbeaten 64 off 138 balls to deny Lancashire. Despite useful contributions from Australians Ian Harvey and Phil Jaques, Yorkshire looked beaten at 182 for 8.

But Hoggard dug in despite a nagging ankle injury, first with Richard Dawson to add 45 for the ninth wicket and then with No 11 Deon Kruis to put on another 46.

Durham took a defiant century from Andre Adams in their stride as they stretched an already handy lead at the top with an innings win inside three days against Essex.

The visitors began the morning in a hopeless situation at the Riverside, facing a 400-run first-innings deficit and already 12 for 1.

But after nightwatchman Dale Steyn had set the tone with a hard-working 82, wicketkeeper James Foster continued the resistance with the rampant Adams.

It was all to no avail though, as Durham seamer Mark Davies finished with nine wickets in the match and Essex fell 19 runs short of making the leaders bat again.

Worcestershire wasted little time in finishing off Somerset at Bath. After wrapping up the hosts' second innings for 152, Worcestershire needed only 21.4 overs to knock off the 138 runs required.

In the First Division, Middlesex and Surrey's London derby was drawn at Lord's. Middlesex made 353 for 6 declared in their second innings, with half-centuries for Ed Smith, Ed Joyce, Scott Styris and Ben Scott.