Steelbacks wilt in face of spinners

LANCASHIRE Lightning’s spinners bowled well on a pitch being used for its third T20 game in a week to set up their side’s comfortable eightwicket defeat of Northants Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast North Group match at Emirates Old Trafford.

Liam Livingstone’s outfielders also rediscovered their best form as the visitors were limited to 123 for nine in their 20 overs, a target which Lancashire’s batsmen overhauled with 23 balls to spare – Alex Davies making 64 not out, his second T20 fifty in consecutive innings.

The initial signs were good for Northants, who reached 62 for one off 5.5 overs with Richard Levi unbeaten on 40.

Next ball, however, Jordan Clark clung on to a return catch blasted back at him by the South African and that reverse began a spell in which the visitors lost three wickets for six runs in 11 balls.

Josh Cobb and Richard Vasconcelos both fell to fine catches by Arron Lilley and Keaton Jennings respectively and none of the other Steelbacks batsmen could dominate a Lancashire attack monopolised by slow bowlers.

Apart from Levi, five batsmen reached double figures but no one made more than Seekkuge Prasanna who managed 17 off 22 balls. All but seven of the 20 overs were bowled by spinners with the best analysis being Matt Parkinson’s two for 14 off four overs.

Stephen Parry and Livingstone also bowled their full allocation, returning figures of 2-19 and 2-29 respectively.

In contrast to the Lightning’s performance against Worcestershire Rapids on Thursday, the catching in the deep was faultless and ensured that the Steelbacks innings never recovered the momentum initially established by Levi’s 21-ball onslaught.

Lancashire’s pursuit of their modest target began badly when Livingstone was caught at the wicket off Prasanna for four but Lilley made a sprightly 23 off 14.

The remainder of the innings belonged to Davies and Keaton Jennings who steered their side home with an unbroken partnership of 88 for the third wicket in exactly 12 overs.

And Davies was in particularly fine form, hitting three successive fours.

That win followed Liam Livingstone smashing the fastest century in Lancashire T20 history as the Red Rose blew Derbyshire away in the Vitality Blast.

The Lightning skipper reached 100 from just 49 balls, becoming only the fifth player to score a ton for the county in the format following Alviro Petersen, Lou Vincent, Stuart Law and Mal Loye.

He reached 50 off only 28 deliveries, and smashed nine fours and seven sixes before he was caught at slip off the bowling of Wahab Riaz in the 15th over on exactly 100.

The previous quickest was Peterson’s against Leicestershire in 2016 from 52 balls.

It meant Lancashire eased to a nine-wicket win with more than 5.3 overs to spare, with Alex Davies making an unbeaten 50 from 35 balls, as they coasted past Derbyshire’s 161-4 at the 3aaa County Ground.

It was the perfect response from Lancashire, who lost their opening game to Worcestershire at Emirates Old Trafford on Thursday.

And it was a day to remember for Toby Lester, who took 1-10 from his three overs on his T20 debut for Lancashire.

Livingstone was quick to praise his bowlers.

“All the credit goes to them,” he said. “They bowled a perfect length for that wicket.

“We needed to respond and we did it in the perfect way.”