An unbroken stand of 85 for the seventh wicket between Rob Taylor and Jigar Naik – plus a rogue afternoon shower – helped to guide Leicestershire to a draw on the final day of their LV County Championship match against Surrey at Grace Road.
The visitors surprised many by opting to bat on at the start of proceedings, adding 62 runs in just six overs to set Leicestershire a target of 387 in a minimum of 88 overs – a target which was never realistic.
Surrey may have cause to regret the time they took to put on those runs, particularly when a beefy shower in mid-afternoon lopped 32 overs from the day's play.
When the sides went off, Leicestershire were struggling on 140-4 and, though they lost the wickets of Dan Redfern and Niall O'Brien shortly after the resumption, Naik and Taylor played exceptionally to defy the promotion-chasing visitors, taking their side to 232-6 at close of play.
Surrey began the day 324 runs ahead, which seemed plenty given the fact that Leicestershire have not won a Championship match since September 2012.
Steven Davies and Jason Roy cracked along, however, and effectively ended any chance Leicestershire had of staging a dramatic victory.
In fact, the spectre of defeat had raised its head by the lunch break as Leicestershire staggered to 82-3.
Angus Robson was undone by the pace of Stuart Meaker and had his leg stump flattened, the Surrey quickie then removing Greg Smith as he chased a wide delivery and was caught behind. Matt Boyce was Meaker's third victim – though the left-hander looked unfortunate to have been given out caught off his arm rather than his glove as he attempted to evade a nasty short ball.
Redfern and Ned Eckersley set about repairing the damage but, with the total on 99, Leicestershire suffered another blow when Eckersley was caught at short leg from the bowling of off-spinner Gareth Batty.
Redfern and O'Brien, however, continued their good form from the first innings with half-centuries. Even so, it was something of a relief for home supporters when heavy rain rolled in. Though the downpour lasted little more than 20 minutes, it ended the action for two hours.
The resumption, with the sun having returned, saw Leicestershire with 22 overs to survive. Initially, however, they looked as though they might founder before the close. Redfern had played beautifully in making 64, which included a dozen boundaries, but he horribly mis-timed a pull off Meaker and was caught at mid-on. O'Brien, on 15, then got a beauty from Batty which was superbly taken by Roy at slip and, on 147-6 with more than 19 overs remaining, Leicestershire were staring at defeat.
However, neither Taylor nor Naik appeared to be in any great discomfort through the course of the final hour and kept the scoreboard ticking over to ensure that Surrey could not slip in any extra overs.
They were quick to punish anything loose and, with Surrey setting attacking fields, the runs came quickly, both men finding the boundary on seven occasions before shaking hands on a hard-earned draw.
