Special Report: Northants Vs. Lancashire Twenty20 - 2011

It Khant be!

The story of how Junaid Khan bowled Lancashire to victory.

Junaid Khan jumps for joy as Lancashire pull-off
one of the great Twenty20 comebacks.

Many cricket matches are remembered for starring an individual performance that turned the game on its head and in July, 2011, Junaid Khan achieved this by bowling Lancashire to victory. His outstanding fast bowling became a revelation in Lancashire's Friend's Life T20 campaign, helping the Lightning to the semi-finals where they were beaten by the overall winners, Leicestershire Foxes.

In this match, Khan demonstrated everything good about his abilities as a bowler, most prominently his outstanding pace and capacity to bowl yorkers at will.


Lancashire had batted themselves into what seemed an irreversible position, managing just 110-9 from their 20 overs. Gareth Cross top-scored with a mere 18 runs and Northants made batting look comparatively easy with Alex Wakely scoring 52 and Rob White 33.

In spite of this start to the innings, the home side failed to wrap up victory when they had the chance and the return of Farveez Maharoof and Khan into the attack put the game into the balance for the first time.

Needing just a handful of runs from the final over, Khan persisted with his yorkers and was able to deny Northants victory, as Lancashire won by three runs. Khan finished with figures of 2-12 from his four overs, affording just three runs per over.