Croft superb as Lightning beat Bears in thriller at Edgbaston

A superb team effort from Lancashire guided them to a tense eight-run victory to keep their hopes of securing a spot in the quarter-finals of the Natwest T20 Blast alive.

The visitors successfully defended a humble total of 145/6 with captain Steven Croft scoring 64 off 51 balls to rescue his side after they had fallen to 34/4, before taking two wickets in Birmingham’s innings, including the massive wicket of Brendon McCullum.

The game appeared to be heading for a comfortable victory for the 2014 Champions and the side who beat Lancashire in last year’s final, as the Bears motored to 76/3, but the loss of seven wickets for 51 runs in the last nine overs of their run-chase gifted a timely victory to the opposition, who fought back brilliantly to secure a tight win.

Lancashire have struggled to dominate with the bat in the first six overs of the innings this season and are among the lowest average scorers for the powerplay. Today was no exception and with the score at 31/3, it was hard to see how the visitors were going to improve their standing in the match.

Life was incredibly tough for Lancashire, who lost Ashwell Prince for eight when he mistimed a delivery from Ricordo Gordon (1-48) into the sky. His opening partner Liam Livingstone (9) fell soon after to Oliver Hannon-Dalby (2-42) when he guided a low full-toss into the hands of Jeetan Patel at mid-wicket, with Lancashire reaching 20/2 in the fifth over.

The incredibly economical and frustrating bowling of Rikki Clarke made matters worse for Lancashire and when he bowled Alex Davies for two the Bears made a huge breakthrough, but how Clarke only bowled three of his four overs, conceding only seven runs in 18 balls, is surely a point of debate for the home side.

The Bears made another big breakthrough when Karl Brown (13) was trapped lbw by Patel after finding the short boundary on the leg side, leaving Lancashire in a desperate position at 34/4 in the eighth over.

Luke Procter (20) added a steady partnership worth 41 runs with the Red Rose skipper to give Lancashire a platform to build upon, although Procter’s reverse-sweep for four was only the second four of the innings in the 11th over, a reflection of how tough it had been for the away side.

But Lancashire added 71 runs in the last seven overs to revive the innings, enabling the Lightning to post a semi-competitive total, but one which would still require an incredibly disciplined performance with the ball.

Croft progressed to his fifth half-century of the campaign in 45 balls, his third six taking him to back-to-back fifties, but the loss of Procter halted Lancashire’s progress when he was bowled by Patel (2-14).

Faulkner supported his skipper nicely, giving Croft the majority of the strike in the latter stage of the innings, which allowed the away side to steadily increase the flow of runs with boundaries at regular intervals.

Croft took the score beyond 100 with back-to-back fours in the 17th over and his third maximum of a superb innings kept the match very much alive after a disappointing start. Faulkner added 20 in 15 balls, smashing a fairly sizable six into the leg side before he picked out Clarke on the boundary to give Hannon-Dalby (2-42) a wicket for his troubles.

Croft hit successive boundaries once again in the final over of the innings, as he pushed his side to a strong finish, setting Birmingham a target of 146 to achieve their third win in a row against Lancashire after losing five games in a row before that.

The Lightning made further inroads by restricting Warwickshire to 4/0 after the first two overs bowled by Faulkner and Kyle Jarvis, but McCullum showed early intent to Jordan Clark, thumping the all-rounder for consecutive fours before launching two huge sixes to accumulate 21 runs in the third over.

Jarvis continued to bowl well and picked up the important wicket of the hosting captain Varun Chopra who chipped the ball to Stephen Parry for eight with the score at 32/1. Tom Lewis started well with back-to-back boundaries in the fifth over to support McCullum who was swinging from the hip with variable success for the hosts.

Lewis continued to play his part with a towering six over mid-wicket when he swept Arron Lilley to the short boundary and the sixes continued to flow for the Bears as McCullum thumped Parry for consecutive maximums at the start of the ninth over.

It was hard to see how Lancashire were going to win the game at this stage, but captain Croft claimed two wickets in as many balls to set a superb recovery in motion, removing Lewis for 22 when he picked out Prince at long-on, before encouraging a fine edge to Davies to remove the dangerous McCullum for 41.

Parry made amends for McCullum's assault, removing Clarke after he had also found the short boundary with a six, as he was trapped plumb lbw by a low full-toss for nine, leaving the Bears in a position of uncertainty at 86/4. Lancashire needed to keep taking wickets and it was impossible to keep Croft out of the action as he took possibly the catch of the season at backward point to account for Laurie Evans (13).

The Lancashire skipper capped-off a superb all-round display when he plucked the ball with one hand diving through the air to give Parry yet another breakthrough and Croft collected figures of 2-16 to keep the run rate in check.

Ateeq Javid (18) found the short boundary with another six, but wickets continued to tumble as Tim Ambrose found Livingstone in the deep to give Lilley (1-16) his first and only wicket of the innings. Gordon departed without scoring when he sent a Faulkner delivery skyward into the hands of Lilley and the Australian all-rounder collected strong figures of 3-19 when he forced Javid to edge through to Davies in the penultimate over.

The Bears needed 19 runs off the last over to win and Lancashire may have been confident heading into the final over if they had not experienced countless heartache at the death this season, but they finally emerged victorious in a tense game despite the best efforts of Hannon-Dalby, who made the most of a short boundary and a do-or-die situation to add nine in six balls.

Clark recovered from the masterclass of McCullum to claim two wickets in the final over, removing Patel for one when he was caught by Croft at mid-off and the innings came to an end when Hannon-Dalby skied the ball to Faulkner, who held on to the catch to secure a vital win for Lancashire.