Drama in the final over as Lightning lose Roses battle
LANCASHIRE were undone by Yorkshire skipper Tim Bresnan’s six for 19 in a dramatic NatWest T20 Blast Roses at Headingley.
The Vikings won the game by 19 runs to take a significant step towards the quarterfinals.
Chasing 183 in front of a 15,750 sell-out, Lancashire were 163 all out as Bresnan produced three wickets and a run-out in the last over of the match.
With both sides sitting immediately outside the North Group’s top four on 11 points beforehand, Lightning spinner Stephen Parry said he thought it was ‘the biggest Roses T20 we’ve ever played.’
It was the Vikings who ended their run of three defeats and Lancashire, for whom captain Steven Croft top-scored with 62, must realistically win their last two matches and hope for other results to go their way.
Adam Lyth top-scored with 50 in Yorkshire’s 182 for seven, but leg-spinner Matt Parkinson pegged them back with careerbest figures of four for 23.
Bresnan’s figures, meanwhile, were his and Yorkshire’s best ever in the format.
The Vikings got off to a blistering start before slipping significantly as the Red Rose caught superbly.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore hoisted the second ball of the match from Croft over long-on for six on the way to 45 before Lyth really motored.
He took two sixes and two fours off Ryan McLaren in the fifth over as the hosts reached 77 without loss after six.
Lyth was dropped on 45 at short third man as he reverse-swept Parkinson’s first ball, Lancashire’s only blemish in the field. He reached 50 off 28 two balls later before holing out to deep mid-wicket, leaving the score at 95 for one after eight.
Spin prospered as Parry removed Shaun Marsh in the 16th over but Jack Leaning hit a brisk 24 before holing out to Junaid Khan, who then only conceded five off the last over of the innings as Yorkshire scored just 59 off the last nine.
Although Liam Livingstone hit three fours off Willey in the first over of the chase, Bresnan hit back in the third by having the England man and Karl Brown caught at mid-off and deep square-leg in three balls as the score fell to 21 for two.
If Croft’s catch to get rid of Sarfraz had been special, then Leaning’s one-handed stunner at deep cover to help Liam Plunkett remove pinch-hitter Arron Lilley in the eighth was something else as Lancashire fell to 63 for three.
The Lightning reached halfway at 81 for three, needing 103 with Jos Buttler at the crease. But when he went, caught and bowled off Steven Patterson for 23, Lancashire were 107 for four and had a mountain to climb, and it proved too much.
Lancashire’s Matt Parkinson said: “It’s a shame the team couldn’t get over the line.
“Fingers crossed, if we win our last two convincingly, we can sneak that fourth spot and get a quarter-final.
“From a personal point of view, I couldn’t have wished for it to go better. It’s been a good start for me.”