Croft 50 is in vain as Lancs halted by rain

STAND-IN skipper Steven Croft made his second successive 50 at his home club and 19-year-old George Bell celebrated his first-team debut by making 31 but rain had the last word at Blackpool, where Lancashire’s Vitality Blast game against Durham ended in no result.

Croft might have been a shade relieved by this outcome. Lancashire were moderately placed on 133-6 after 17.4 overs when the rain arrived.

The result means Lightning need only to beat Derbyshire in tonight’s game at the Incora County Ground to clinch their qualification for the knockout stages of the Blast.

Lancashire’s powerplay was a quite bizarre affair with a total of nine runs being scored off four of the six overs but 34 coming off the other two.

They side also lost three wickets, Josh Bohannon being bowled for four by Ben Raine in the third over before Liam Trevaskis had Luke Wells caught at mid-on by Scott Borthwick for 21.

Two balls later, the slow left-armer had Rob Jones leg before wicket for a duck when reverse-sweeping.

That brought Tim David to the wicket much sooner than Lancashire fans may have been hoping, but the big-hitting Singaporean made only 16 before slicing Nathan Sowter’s first ball to Raine at backward point.

However, Bell and Croft rebuilt the innings with an understandably careful partnership of 55 in 7.1 overs before Bell was caught at deep midwicket off Sowter after a coolly impressive 27-ball innings.

Danny Lamb made five before AJ Tye had him athletically caught by sub fielder Jon Bushnell who was running back from mid-off.

But it was the Durham spinners who had restricted Lancashire’s batsmen most effectively with Sowter taking 2-17 from his four overs and Trevaskis 2-29 from the same allotment.

Lancashire’s preparations for the game were disrupted when skipper Dane Vilas was suspended for one game following his dissent after his dismissal in the County Championship match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Keaton Jennings was also ruled out with a calf injury so Bell kept wicket on his first-team debut.

Matthew Parkinson was unavailable due to a hand injury but Luke Wood was in Lancashire’s XI, having returned a day early from England’s white-ball tour to the Netherlands in which he didn’t play a game.