Lancashire dominate Leicestershire with convincing win

Lancashire cruised to a 40-run victory against Leicestershire at Grace Road in the Natwest T20 Blast to strengthen their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament.

Half-centuries from Paul Horton (63), Karl Brown (52) and Steven Croft (50) launched Lancashire to an impressive total of 191/5 after they were put into bat and the Lightning defended well to ease to their sixth win of the campaign.

The home side posted 151/8 in reply, as Jordan Clark claimed 3-41 to forge daylight between Lancashire and the other sides chasing for qualification in the North Group.

Ashwell Prince, Lancashire’s leading run-scorer in the Twenty20 this season, fell for nine to Ben Raine’s first ball of the match, playing on with an attempted pull shot.

Brown found his feet early on and played another brilliant innings for Lancashire following his career-best performance in the Roses match, where he scored 69 to take Lancashire to their highest ever Twenty20 score.

The Lancashire batsman made the most of a drop from Grant Elliot when he was on 22, reaching a composed half-century in 31 balls in an innings containing six fours and two sixes.

The first of these two sixes came in the second over off Raine, a good response after the early loss of Prince, and Brown continued to accelerate with a sweep slog for a second maximum off Raine in the sixth over, guiding Lancashire to a powerplay score of 52/1.

Brown recorded back-to-back fifties in this format, while Horton made a slow start, although he was starved of the strike, scoring just three runs by the end of the sixth over. But Horton joined in the search for boundaries with regular success, finding the rope seven times as he top-scored for the visitors.

It could have been a mammoth innings from Brown at the rate he was going, but a smart piece of fielding from skipper Mark Cosgrove brought his antics to a tame end when he was run out at the non-strikers end backing up too far, with Lancashire reaching 84/2 in the 11^th over.

Horton continued to play cultured strokes into the gaps, while captain Croft played with a touch of belligerence, hitting three sixes on his way to a 25-ball fifty.

Croft also favoured the sweep slog and nearly hit the ball out of the ground with his first maximum and his second six helped Lancashire to add 18 runs in the 15^th over.

A 38-ball half-century from Horton represented a superb innings from the Lancashire opening batsman, who recorded his best score of the campaign so far in a knock which proved his capabilities in white-ball cricket.

Raine (1-42) wasn’t having the most enjoyable of matches despite claiming the early wicket of Prince, as Croft launched a third six in the 18^th over of the innings, this one comfortably the biggest of his collection.

Horton’s innings came to an end when he was caught by Elliot off Clint McKay (1-26) by which stage Lancashire had reached 175/3. A flurry of wickets towards the end of the innings accounted for Croft, who was run out shortly after reaching his half-century.

Alex Davies (3) was also run out in the final over of the innings, but Lancashire finished on 191/5, a commanding total after being put into bat by the opposition.

Leicestershire made a steady start in their run chase, but James Faulkner was superb with the ball, conceding only one run in the fourth over of the innings to hinder the Foxes’ progress.

Wickets at regular intervals ruined what might have an even contest and Leicester lost their first wicket when Ned Eckersley was bowled by Kyle Jarvis (1-31) for 19.

Clark claimed the first of three important wickets for Lancashire, removing the hard-hitting Cosgrove for 21 when Horton took a smart catch in the covers, although Leicestershire managed to post a respectable powerplay score of 51/2.

Stephen Parry then struck another crucial blow with his first delivery, although he was very fortunate to be afforded this wicket given that the ball appeared to be comfortably above waist-height. But Raine departed for four when he was caught well by Croft, who went on to make an all-round impact for Lancashire, recording economical figures of 1-19 from his four overs.

The Lancashire captain removed Elliot for 22 when he picked out Liam Livingstone on the boundary, a common and unfortunate theme in the Leicestershire innings, as Croft recorded a rare wicket maiden in the 12^th over to make Lancashire strong favourites.

Aadil Ali showed signs of encouragement with his innings of 26 off 21 balls, smashing two huge sixes to give Leicester a flicker of hope, but Clark struck again when Ali picked out Prince in the deep, following the biggest six of the match.

Former Lancashire man Andrea Agathangelou could only add six runs to the total before he was the next batsman to find the only fielder in the part of the ground he had decided to hit the ball, picking out Arron Lilley at long-on off Faulkner (1-20).

Lilley claimed another catch when Rob Sayers fell for nine, giving Clark his third scalp of the innings, and the hosts fell comfortably short in a match which they had never looked like winning, following a questionable decision at the toss.