LANCASHIRE were facing their toughest battle of the season at the Oval today with their unbeaten Championship record -- and possibly their title hopes -- on the line.

They had to bat all day to salvage a draw after a disastrous first innings batting collapse to 120 all out.

Lancashire have already saved one match in similar circumstances, grafting 140 overs to deny Somerset at Taunton three weeks ago. But Surrey have a much stronger attack led by Alex Tudor, who restated his England credentials yesterday with a career best figures of 7-48, and Pakistani spin wizard Saqlain Mushtaq.

Lancashire did not have much luck yesterday, with John Crawley stunned to be given out lbw when he was well forward, and Sourav Ganguly treading on his middle stump after turning his first ball to square leg.

That left them on 7-3 in reply to Surrey's first innings total of 310 after makeshift opener Glen Chapple had steered Tudor to second slip, and they never really recovered.

Neil Fairbrother scored 366 at the Oval ten years ago but fell 351 short of that record-breaking innings yesterday, and when Tudor had Graham Lloyd caught behind for a second ball duck, he had taken four wickets for 20 in 20 balls. Andy Flintoff threatened a repeat of his heroics here in the NatWest quarter final last week, lofting Saqlain for a six and adding six fours. But just before lunch Saqlain had Flintoff caught at short leg, and Lancashire's realistic hopes of avoiding the follow on disappearred.

Surprisingly Surrey's skipper Adam Hollioake let them off the hook by choosing not to enforce the follow on, although his batsmen then piled on the agony with Mark Butcher hitting 95 and both Hollioake and Ally Brown lofting Chris Schofield for massive sixes high into the Oval pavilion. Hollioake finally declared on 227-4 leaving Lancashire needing an impossible 418 for victory.

Chapple and Crawley managed to survive eight overs from Tudor and Martin Bicknell allowing Lancashire to resume today with all 10 wickets standing. But with Saqlain looking virtually unplayable in the first innings, and former England leg spinner Ian Salisbury posing another threat, they were facing a daunting task.