John Crawley produced a captain's knock to see Lancashire to a comfortable draw in their CricInfo Championship match against Surrey at the Oval.

The visitors were set 293 to win in just under five hours when Surrey skipper Adam Hollioake declared on 320 for eight midway through the morning session.

Lancashire never threatened to make the runs but were happy to survive against Saqlain Mushtaq, and Crawley steered them to 170 for two in 71 overs with an unbeaten 84.

It was the skipper's best innings of a disappointing season which had previously yielded only two Championship half-centuries, and a timely one coming on the day that Surrey's Mark Ramprakash withdrew from England's Test squad with a hamstring problem.

Lancashire took nine points from the draw to stay second in the First Division table, while Surrey collected eight points to climb back up to third.

Crawley had lost his opening partner Jamie Haynes early on, snapped up at first slip by Mark Butcher in a lively new ball burst from Alex Tudor.

But he was then joined by Andy Flintoff to see Lancashire through until lunch and bat throughout the afternoon session.

It was slow going, with only 54 runs coming from 32 overs between lunch and tea.

Crawley had moved smoothly to 28 before lunch with some well-timed boundaries but only scored 21 in the afternoon, while Flintoff ground to a halt on 24 for almost an hour until he finally cut loose to strike Ian Salisbury through mid on for four.

Saqlain, who had taken six wickets in the first innings, finally broke the stand after tea when he trapped Flintoff lbw for 34 with a quicker ball.

But Neil Fairbrother joined Crawley to add an unbroken 66 for the third wicket, and the captains agreed to the draw at 5-30.

Surrey may have been regretting their decision to bat on from their overnight 285 for eight. Salisbury and Martin Bicknell showed no great urgency in extending their ninth-wicket stand by 18 in 12 overs before Salisbury top-edged a sweep off Muttiah Muralitharan, with Flintoff taking a simple catch running around from short fine leg.

Saqlain came in to play an entertaining little knock, including a couple of reverse sweeps off Murali, before Hollioake finally declared shortly after midday with Bicknell unbeaten on 26.

Muralitharan ended with three for 72 from another marathon 55 over stint on his penultimate Championship appearance before he heads home to Sri Lanka. That gave him match figures of eight for 153, taking his tally of wickets at the Oval to 34 in six innings, and leaving him with 102 in 12 Championship appearances for Lancashire.

© CricInfo