Essex ended a dismal run of four successive defeats in the CricInfo County Championship with a draw against Leicestershire after Darren Robinson had completed a century for the second time in the match.

The 28-year-old opener acted as the rock for his county's survival plans after they had begun their second innings, still 203 runs adrift and with less than an hour of the final day having been played.

However the pitch had remained benign throughout the match, although leg-spinner Shahid Afridi returned figures of 5-84 in the first innings to raise his side's hopes of victory.

However, he was unable to tease the home batsmen into submission a second time as they displayed a determined resilience so lacking in recent weeks.

Robinson and Stephen Peters wiped 39 off the deficit before stand-in opener Peters was bowled by an Afridi delivery that barely rose to take middle stump, two overs before lunch. That was to be the only prize for the Pakistani bowler although two wickets in successive overs for Devon Malcolm inspired Leicestershire.

Stuart Law edged a delivery from the country's leading wicket taker to keeper Neil Burns and then the out of touch Ronnie Irani also found Burns as he nicked an away swinger. That left Essex on 102-3 but Robinson was in masterly form and with pugnacious resistance, he steered them to safety.

His partnerships of 42 with James Foster and then 80 with Graham Napier eased any Essex worries as they wiped out the deficit whilst serving to frustrate Leicestershire.

All the time Robinson displayed sweetly timed drives many of which contributed towards the 16 boundaries in his second century. The last of those, from the bowling of Carl Crowe brought the Essex opener his second century in two days.

Leicestershire captain Ben Smith rotated six bowlers regularly but was unable to penetrate the resistance of the home side and the match was called off with eight overs of the final statutory 16 still outstanding.

© CricInfo