LANCASHIRE have extended their lead at the top of the LV= County Championship’s Division Two table to 15 points despite failing to beat Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

Centuries for Rob Keogh and Steven Crook, who made 100 and 102 not out, and 81 from opener Stephen Peters forced the draw for Northants.

It proved a frustrating final day for Steven Croft’s side as they chased a third successive win at the start of their 2015 campaign.

High winds meant that bails could not be used for the second day running, and Lancashire only took three wickets as the hosts advanced their second innings from 42-2 overnight to 391-5 from 92 overs.

The Red Rose finished the match with a haul of 13 points, the maximum you can get for a draw.

They went into the game 13 points clear of second-placed Essex and stretched that by a further two points.

More importantly, they are 22 clear of third-placed Derbyshire in the race for promotion back to Division One and will look to increase that further when they host Gloucestershire at Emirates Old Trafford, starting on Sunday.

Northants started the day nine runs behind with eight wickets in hand, and Lancashire endured a frustrating morning as the hosts added 128 runs for the loss of only Peters to Jordan Clark.

Peters was caught at deep square-leg pulling at Clark, who later had Keogh caught at long-leg playing a similar shot, leaving Northants at 235-5 in the 65th over of the innings.

At that point they had a lead of 184 with a little over 50 overs of the match remaining.

Sandwiched in between, just after lunch, Simon Kerrigan had Adam Rossington caught at cover.

Peters and Keogh shared 125 for the third wicket before Keogh and Rossington shared 53 for the fourth.

Northants took their lead to 200 with 47 overs left in the match midway through the afternoon.

Crook, in an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 156 with Josh Cobb (46 not out), added to his first-innings 91 with a 90-ball century.

This was Northants’ best sixth-wicket stand against Lancashire.

In trying to break the partnership, Kerrigan even bowled a few unsuccessful overs of left-arm wrist spin instead of his usual left-arm orthodox and ex-South Africa Test batsman Alviro Petersen bowled two overs of medium pace after tea.

Lancashire’s bowling performance throughout both innings was unconvincing. Clark was their most successful bowler with six wickets in the match.