Middlesex have avoided being relegated to Division Two after batting out the last day at Lancashire on the final day of the County Championship season.

With relegation rivals Lancashire having yesterday bagged the bonus points they needed to send Middlesex down, a win was all the hosts needed, while Middlesex needed to hold on for a draw to stay up.

But Middlesex, who were 202-4 overnight, batted out the day to reach 341-8 at stumps to secure survival, sending Lancashire down instead.

Angus Fraser's men began 114 runs ahead with six second-innings wickets in hand, and their cause was helped by early rain, which meant only 10.2 overs were possible in the morning session.

Eoin Morgan (45) was the only Middlesex batsman to fall in that period, trapped lbw by Junaid Khan with the new ball, and the Pakistan paceman Junaid struck again shortly after the resumption, ending Neil Dexter's 105-ball innings by forcing the right-hander to play on to his own stumps for 17.

Lancashire wicketkeeper Jos Buttler dropped John Simpson after he edged behind off Glen Chapple, although Buttler's mistake did not prove too costly as, two balls later, Simpson lofted spinner Simon Kerrigan into the hands of Luke Procter at deep mid-wicket.

An attacking 34 from Toby Roland-Jones swung the initiative back to Middlesex, and when he was lbw to Chapple, Tim Murtagh and James Harris pushed their lead past 200 by tea.

On a batsman-friendly surface, Murtagh (29 not out) and Harris (41 not out) survived without alarm after tea to put the game out of Lancashire's reach and confirm that the home side would go down and Middlesex would live to fight another day in the top flight.