Buttler heroics inspires victory in Roses clash

Jos Buttler played a heroic innings for Lancashire against their Roses rivals, scoring 71 from 35 balls to guide the Lightning to a thrilling victory at Headingley in front of a sell-out crowd.

Lancashire were set a mammoth target of 186, which they reached off the final ball of the game as Buttler scampered a quick single to take the Red Rose home by four wickets.

Yorkshire would have been delighted with their total of 185/8 at the midway point after being inserted by Steven Croft, as Joe Root hit a classy 55 from 39 balls to lead the home side in their search for a dominant score.

With the help of countryman Gary Ballance (31) Root added 63 runs for the fourth-wicket stand, as Yorkshire made steady progress. The game started with an audacious reverse-sweep slog from Glenn Maxwell off Croft, a shot that cleared the ropes, and this set the tone for an enthralling contest between bat and ball.

Maxwell helped Yorkshire to score 18 runs from the first over and Yorkshire’s score could have been so much bigger if the hard-hitting Australian had been at the crease for any longer than the nine balls he faced.

Joe Root made a classy half-century in a rare appearance for Yorkshire.

His determination to find the boundary was to be his downfall, as he skied a George Edwards (2-29) delivery to Alex Davies - who surrendered the gloves to Buttler for this match - but Davies took a clean catch with the score at 20/1.

James Faulkner came into the attack and claimed an important breakthrough with his third ball of the match, removing Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale for six with an in-swinging Yorker that forced its way through the gate.

This brought Jonny Bairstow to the crease, who hit a half-century when these two sides last met in the Emirates Airline tournament in Dubai and he added 18 in 21 balls before falling to Arron Lilley.

Root’s innings was one of high class and skill but, in reality, the England vice-captain played nothing more than textbook strokes, piercing the in-field inside and outside the powerplay overs. He demonstrated that brute force alone was not always the way forward and he continued to frustrate the Lancashire bowlers with the use of his feet and wrists.

Despite the early loss of Maxwell, Yorkshire mustered a score of 55/2 at the end of the powerplay, but the introduction of spin stemmed the flow of runs as Lilley (2-45) collected the wickets of Bairstow and Ballance in his four-over allocation.

Bairstow had hit a rut since Stephen Parry (0-33) and Lilley came onto bowl and his attempt to clear the rope ended in him picking out Karl Brown at deep mid-wicket. Brown was once again in action, taking the catch to remove Ballance after he had hit three sixes in successive deliveries.

He and Root were starting to settle at the crease and so it was vitally important that Brown held on to a difficult chance in the deep, as Yorkshire reached 128/4. Root has had a superb 12 months and he proved a number of people wrong with an accomplished innings in front of a record-breaking crowd for a Roses match at Headingley, reaching his 38th fifty in this format in 35 balls.

Jack Leaning also made an important contribution, scoring 22 from ten balls including two sixes off Lilley, but he fell to Faulkner with the score at 174/7 as the Australian also collected the prized wicket of Root to finish with impressive figures of 3-27.

James Faulkner collected figures of 3-27 for Lancashire.

In fact, Root fell to the first ball of Faulkner’s reintroduction when he was caught by Tom Bailey in the covers and the World-Cup winner executed a number of slower balls and Yorkers to make life difficult for the Yorkshire tail-end.

It may be a bit of an insult to refer to such batsmen as tail-enders, given that Tim Bresnan was coming in at number seven and Adil Rashid – who did not bat – was due to come in at number ten. Bresnan managed to reach the fence with a mistimed charge back over the bowler’s head for six, before he was bowled by Edwards for 12.

Edwards rounded off the Yorkshire innings with a routine run out chance to remove Richard Pyrah for four, with Liam Plunkett unbeaten on nine, as the home side made a healthy total of 185/9.

Lancashire’s response started brightly as young Liam Livingstone made use of the fielding restrictions by hitting 27 in 16 deliveries including two sixes to prove that he is capable of delivering not only in the first team, but also on the big stage.

Livingstone clears the ropes with a huge six in his innings of 27.

His first six was a lofted drive down the ground off Bresnan in the second over of Lancashire’s run chase and he followed that up a towering six over square-leg, Bresnan again taking stick from the young opening batsman.

Livingstone lived a charmed life as he offered a routine chance that was put down by Matt Fisher at square-leg, but the very next ball he top-edged an attempted sweep to Rashid at short third-man with the score at 41/1.

Brown made an early impression with the bat, punching a perfectly timed straight drive down the ground for a six, as he added 21 alongside Ashwell Prince. The South-African batsman enjoyed the opportunity to stand in front of the Western Terrace and he carried a confidence into his approach at the crease, adding 32 in 29 balls before falling to Maxwell.

The Australian spinner claimed three wickets for 15 runs in three overs and was without question the pick of the Yorkshire attack, claiming the early scalp of Livingstone before forcing Brown to pick out Ballance at long-on, as Lancashire lost their second wicket after a second partnership worth 41 runs.

Whereas Root had beaten the ring of fielders on numerous occasions, Prince struggled to hit his straps and Maxwell reduced Lancashire to 89/3 when he trapped Prince lbw in the13th over of the innings.

When Buttler and Croft came together, the required run rate was already above twelve runs per over, but Buttler played a typically calm innings under circumstances that could just as easily have caused him to buckle. The keeper-batsman hit a six early on to settle the nerves and this was to be the first of five sixes hit by the England international in a remarkable innings, one that would see him collect the Man of the Match award.

Lancashire had ground to make up after Prince and Brown had been pinned back by the spin of Maxwell and Rashid (0-33) but Buttler remained composed, flicking Rashid for six through the legside to keep Lancashire afloat in a difficult run chase.

Buttler hits one of five sixes as he guides Lancashire to victory.

Croft found life at the crease a touch more difficult and his attempts to get the ball away often resulted in powerful strokes that were timed almost too well, as he managed to collect a handful of singles, as well as one boundary down towards fine leg, before he fell for 14 to Liam Plunkett (1-33).

While the departure of the Lancashire captain was disappointing, the sight of Faulkner walking to the crease was hardly disheartening to the minority of people in the ground who were hoping that Lancashire could chase 45 runs in the final three overs of the match.

Faulkner (8) is known as ‘The Finisher’ in this format of the game and he showed his class with a six down the ground off only the second ball he faced. With him and Buttler at the crease, Lancashire felt that they could achieve any equation put before them, but when Faulkner picked out Maxwell off Fisher, the balance tipped back in Yorkshire’s favour.

Lancashire still required more than 30 runs heading into the final 12 balls of the game, but Buttler went on to score 29 off the last 32 runs Lancashire needed to win the game in the last two overs, reaching his fifty in 32 balls with back-to-back sixes off Fisher.

Buttler acknowledges a jubilant Lancashire dugout as he reaches fifty.

Despite these consecutive sixes, Lancashire still needed 17 runs from the final over, but another maximum off the first ball of the final over from Buttler gave the visitors a huge advantage. Buttler then hit back-to-back fours off Bresnan (0-51) to take the target to three runs from as many balls to win the game.

Buttler shifted the strike to Lilley, who scampered a single to return the strike back to Buttler as Lancashire entered the final ball needing just one run to win the game.

The last completed game at Headingley between these two sides ended in a tie, but Lancashire recorded their first twenty20 victory at this ground since 2009 as Buttler dashed to the non-strikers end to complete a thrilling win for the Red Rose.