JASON GILLESPIE defended the decision for Yorkshire not to have a late attempt at chasing down 367 against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

The county champions had all ten wickets intact at tea when they were 148-0 from 41 overs, needing 219 more from a minimum of 30.

But they struggled for momentum after tea, and it was a surprise to many, including home coach Ashley Giles, that they shook hands on a ten-point draw at 5pm with the score on 188-0 from 52, including a maiden Roses hundred for Alex Lees.

Lees and Adam Lyth, who was 62 not out, had taken the target to 180 from the last 20 overs.

Although the draw was always going to be the most likely result, they were expected to throw the bat for at least two or three overs to see if they could spark a flurry of runs.

Instead, with Lees unbeaten on 114 off 169 balls, they shook hands on a draw which leaves the champions second in Division One and 26 points behind Middlesex with five to play and a game in hand.

"Chasing was in the back of our minds,” admitted Gillespie.

“We thought we'd assess at tea, which we did. We thought 'let's keeping batting and we'll get feedback from Lythy and Leesy'. They are the two lads who were out there.

“Their feedback was that with the deteriorating pitch, it would be a big challenge for them to go for it, let alone a new batter coming in.

"If it was 40 or 50 fewer runs, absolutely we'd have had a crack.

"There were a couple of those moment where we thought ‘come on, we can do this’.

"Leesy and Lythy are always very much if push comes to shove, they want to take the attacking option. But both their feedback was the same. They felt that the pitch was deteriorating.”

Lancashire had the better of the majority of a contest which saw their teenage opener Haseeb Hameed star with two centuries to break a host of records.

At 19, he became the youngest man of three to score two hundreds in a Roses match and also the fifth youngest ever to post 1,000 Championship runs in a season.

Still, Gillespie was in bullish mood at close, adding: “I’m happy we made a really big statement in the afternoon.

“I felt that Lancashire probably played their best game all year and still couldn’t take a wicket against us and still couldn’t beat us.

“We weren’t at our best, but we’re still showing we can fight for a strong draw. That sends a statement to all the other counties. We don’t roll over. We won’t.

“We look to drive games, although we couldn’t with this one.

“There were a couple of reasons for that. The morning of days two and four, we can be a little bit better with the ball and in the field.

“We feel if we can do that, we’re in a pretty good place. All in all, we’re happy to bank the points and move on.”

The Australian also refused to be drawn on some controversy surrounding Liam Livingstone’s catch to get rid of Andrew Hodd on day three, which appeared to bounce.

The issue has been left in the hands of the ECB’s Cricket Liaison Officer Steve Davis, the former international umpire.