Croft earns tense victory for Lightning in t20 opener

Steven Croft hit 70 from 39 balls as Lancashire Lightning chased a revised target of 140 in their opening Natwest T20 Blast fixture against Leicestershire Foxes.

Lancashire achieved a thrilling five-wicket victory as Croft hit the final ball of the game for four to give the Lightning a winning start at Emirates Old Trafford.

Croft and Alex Davies (25) added 74 for fifth-wicket partnership after the hosts fell to 57/4 with the Foxes scoring 131/7 in 15 overs.

George Edwards claimed 4 for 20 on his debut for the Lightning as the hosts claimed five wickets in 21 balls after the delay. Kevin O'Brien hit 47 as he top-scored for the visitors in the gloomy conditions before the players left the field for heavy rain.

The Foxes made a good start after winning the toss and electing to bat first, reaching a powerplay score of 64/2 with Ned Eckersley making a quick-fire 29 from 14 balls, as the fielding restrictions aided their progression at an early stage.

Lancashire gave debuts to fast bowler  Edwards and hard-hitting batsman Liam Livingstone and the former was asked to open the bowling with captain Steven Croft. Early boundaries for Leicester skipper Mark Cosgrove and Eckersley gave the Foxes a good start, but another T20 debutant, Tom Bailey, struck with his third ball to remove Cosgrove.

The Foxes' captain feathered an edge off Bailey (1-21) through to Alex Davies with the score at 21/1, as he departed for 12. The dangerous O'Brien came to the crease at an early stage and made an immediate impact, hitting his third and sixth deliveries for maximums as the Lightning's homegrown attack struggled to gain control.

Bailey claimed a wicket with his third ball on his t20 debut for Lancashire.

O'Brien's second six in quick succession brought up 50 for the visitors in just 5.2 overs as Eckersley also found his range with four boundaries and a six of his own. The introduction of spin in the form of Stephen Parry (1-24) initially helped Lancashire to restrict the flow of runs, but the reintroduction of Croft gave the Lightning their second wicket as the off-spinner finished with 1 for 19 from three overs.

Eckersley's eye-catching knock came to a halt when he picked out Karl Brown at deep mid-wicket with the visitors progressing steadily to 63/2 in the sixth over. Leicestershire's specialist t20 signing Grant Elliot of New Zealand played a backseat role in his partnership  with O'Brien, as his Irish batting partner found the fence time and time again.

The Foxes reached 105/2 at the hallway stage in their innings, but the weather continued to deteriorate around the ground and fine drizzle soon developed into heavy rain as the players left the field after 11.2 overs with O'Brien approaching what would have been an eighth fifty in this format.

A short delay for rain suggested a restart at 7.30 with no overs lost, but as the rain returned this start time was pushed back by an hour as the ground staff were put to their limits by having to drag the covers back and forth several times before they became a more permanent feature at the ground.

As the rain cleared an 8.30 start forced the game to be reduced to 15 overs per side and the delay was certainly to Lancashire's benefit as they claimed five wickets in 21 balls when play eventually resumed.

Having conceded 13 runs in a wicketless first over, Edwards seemed a surprising selection by Croft, but the former Surrey paceman claimed four wickets for seven runs in his final two overs as he went on to finish with 4 for 20 on his debut for the Lightning.

Lancashire claimed a wicket with the second ball after the delay when Elliot (17) fell to Parry, top-edging an attempted sweep to Ashwell Prince. O'Brien's onslaught had lost all momentum by the time the Foxes came out to bat and he gave Edwards his first wicket in a Lancashire shirt when he was caught by Jordan Clark for 47, the second wicket in four balls after the break in play.

Davies added crucial runs in his partnership with Croft.

The Lightning then struck a third breakthrough in seven deliveries when Rob Taylor was caught behind off Edwards at 109/5, as Edwards struck twice in his second over. The former Surrey fast bowler was then given the last over and collected two wickets off the final two balls of the innings, removing Tom Wells and Clint McKay, who both made ten, as Leicestershire finished with 131/7.

Duckworth Lewis added eight more runs to their score, setting the hosts 140 in 15 overs to claim what would be an impressive victory in their first match of the tournament, which they came so close to winning for the first time last season at Edgbaston.

Livingstone opened Lancashire's reply with the South-African veteran Prince and the hosts started well, scoring nine runs from the first over. However, Prince top-edged a Ben Raine (1-24) delivery to Niall O'Brien behind the stumps as he departed for eight.

Lancashire's top run-scorer in T20 cricket in 2014, Karl Brown, joined Livingstone, but he failed to make a significant impact on the game when he was next to go for nine. The Lancashire batsman was caught in unconvincing fashion by Cosgrove as McKay (1-24) collected an important breakthrough, but this wicket brought Croft to the crease, who went on to play a captain's innings for his side.

Runs started to dry up for the Lightning but the wickets kept coming as Livingstone was next to go, with Taylor (1-27) striking with his first ball of the game to remove the opening batsman for 15. 

Alviro Petersen (10) played a responsible innings alongside Croft, but his first attempt to play an expansive shot resulted in him being caught in the deep off Jigar Naik (1-24), as Lancashire fell to 57/4 in the eighth over.

Despite their recovery with the ball, Lancashire appeared to be down and out and the absence of a boundary for nearly six overs made the Lightning's task that much harder, as keeper and captain came together to save the game.

It was slow going for the pair but Davies had been in good form so far this season and he improvised with a variety of strokes including several reverse-sweeps for four as he and Croft eventually found the fence again.

Croft went on to make a 30-ball half-century, with the fifty partnership coming up in exactly the same number of balls. Lancashire needed 24 runs from the final two overs after Croft and Davies's efforts and this target then fell to ten runs off the final over, with the Lightning holding the edge going into the final over. The Lancashire captain made his t20 debut in 2006 and is the only Englishman to play in over 100 consecutive t20 fixtures.

In a match filled with twists and turns, Davies was the victim of miscommunication with Croft as the Lancashire wicketkeeper was ran out coming back for a second, but Croft made amends for his error as he went on to win the game for his side.

The hosts needed six runs from three deliveries and the game could have gone either way, but the Lancashire all-rounder hit two fours in the final three deliveries to give his side a memorable win at Old Trafford against the side who they play in the County Championship this Sunday at Grace Road.