Nottinghamshire’s LV= County Championship match against Sussex petered out into a draw at Hove after rain wiped out the morning session.
When play eventually began, the home side still required 405 more for victory, with Notts needing to claim all ten wickets.
Despite Stuart Broad getting rid of both openers, they had put on 161 by that time and the total had only advanced to 198-2 by the start of the final hour, whereupon the sides agreed to shake hands.
Wayne Noon, the Notts coach, felt the outcome was as good as could have been expected, considering the loss of so much cricket on the final day.
“When you lose a whole session it’s difficult to force a result, especially when you see how that wicket turned out,” he said.
“It became very, very flat and only after tea, bizarrely, it started to swing a little bit, so to take maximum bonus points, having been put into bat, we can look at it as being a good result.”
Play began at ten past one, with an allocation of 72 overs to be squeezed in, if possible. Resuming from their overnight position of 29-0, Chris Nash and Luke Wells began against Nottinghamshire’s new ball pairing of Peter Siddle (Sea End) and Stuart Broad (Cromwell Road End).
For the third day running play was accompanied by a backdrop of excitable schoolchildren, brought to the cricket as guests of the club. Few other spectators had gambled on there being much action after the overnight showers and morning drizzle had saturated the ground.
Nash survived confident lbw shouts against both bowlers inside the first twenty minutes and Wells nudged a Siddle no-ball inches short of Samit Patel at second slip.
Neither batsman appeared troubled, on the benign surface, and the gradual increase in the run-rate began to look slightly worrying for the fielding side.
Wells, on 45, nearly perished when he punched Patel to midwicket but Phil Jaques couldn’t grasp the ball.
The left-hander reached his half century (80 balls 6x4) and was soon followed to the landmark by Nash (85 balls 6x4) as the stand sped beyond three figures.
Nash, having trailed his partner by several runs to this point, suddenly sailed past Wells with a flurry of boundaries to bring the equation down to 298 runs needed from 40 overs.
The floodlights were switched on with only ten minutes to go before tea, which was reached after a token over from Riki Wessels – bowling at his only victim in English county cricket, Luke Wells.
Wells survived the over and walked off with the board showing 146-0.
The final session began with 8 runs per over needed and when 15 came from the first two it appeared that Sussex were interested in the chase. Nash, on 81, clipped Patel over midwicket with the shot brushing the fingertips of the leaping Michael Lumb.
Before heads could drop at another slightly false shot going unpunished the stand was broken in emphatic fashion as Broad uprooted Wells’ (73) middle stump.
Rory Hamilton-Brown showed his intent by getting off the mark instantly, with a one-bounce four down the ground off Patel.
The rate increased even further and Sussex’s hopes totally evaporated when Broad struck again, having Nash (86) caught behind, as a lifting delivery kissed the outside edge.
With Wessels returning for a second spell – and Alex Hales getting a rare bowl the closing moments were all rather superficial, although Hales twice nearly removed Hamilton-Brown (dropped and huge lbw shout) before the match was consigned to the record books.
Notts are next in LV= County Championship action on Sunday when they face Yorkshire at Headingley (11am).