Livingstone knock keeps Lancashire hopes alive

Lancashire have kept alive their hopes of reaching the Quarter-Finals of this years Royal London Cup  with a 51 run victory over Kent at Canterbury. 

Lancashire made a slow start to their innings having been inserted by Kent. Matt Coles (4-34) and Matthew Hunn (2-40) making early inroads to the Lancashire top order.

The first man to go was Ashwell Prince (4) who guided a Coles delivery to James Tredwell at second slip with the score on 7. Karl Brown (1) was the next wicket to fall becoming Coles second victim, this time Sam Billings taking the catch leaving the visitors on 8-2 after 5.2 overs.  Alviro Petersen (10) and Steven Croft  (53) then batted steadily for 5 overs to rebuild the innings when the introduction of Hunn to the attack saw the back of Petersen. He was caught by a stunning diving catch down the leg side by Billings the score was now 26-3.

The fourth wicket stand for Lancashire was to prove the foundation that the remainder of the innings was built upon.  Croft and Liam Livingstone (91) making his first appearance in this years Royal London Cup added 110 runs in 21.5 to take the Lightning from 26-3 to 136-4. Livingstone made the Kent bowlers pay for a dropped chance on the boundary by Joe Denly when he was on 34. The partnership was eventually broken when Croft was caught superbly by Darren Stevens at point from the bowling of Hunn. Croft had middled the delivery and Stevens threw out his right hand plucking the ball from mid air.

Lancashire continued to score at a good rate through the middle overs as Alex Davies (57) joined Livingstone who was continuing his good form following scores of 142, 118, 71 and 162 for Nantwich and Lancashire 2^nd XI this week. Livingstone was eventually out with the score on 206, caught and bowled by Stevens attempting a ramp shot. His innings had consisted of 6 fours and 3 sixes from 88 balls. 

James Faulkner (4) joined Alex Davies at the crease, with the Lancashire wicket keeper starting to find to ropes at regular intervals. He brought up his fifty from 35 balls with 8 boundaries. Faulkner who had taken a dozen balls to play himself in, was then trapped by Coles with the score on 225-6. Davies followed shortly after holing out in the deep to Fabian Cowdrey off the bowling of Stevens (2-58).

The loss of these wickets then applied the breaks to the Lancashire innings with Jordan Clark (11) and Stephen Parry (2) at the wicket with the score on 231-7 with 5 overs still to be bowled. 

Parry was caught by Billings off the bowling of Coles, becoming his fourth victim, with the score on 237-8.  Kyle Jarvis (7*) then joined Clark at the wicket, the pair kept the scoreboard ticking over with singles until Clark attempted to hit Mitchell Claydon (1-38) back over his head only to find Coles at long-off. Gavin Griffiths (5) joined Jarvis at the wicket as the pair added 10 runs from the remaining deliveries.  Setting the Kent Spitfires 259 for victory.

The Kent reply started off badly losing Joe Denly from the bowling of Jarvis (1-32) without troubling the scorers, Kent found themselves 6-1 in the third over.  However opening Partner Daniel Bell-Drummond (30) and Kent skipper Sam Northeast (36) got the innings back on track sharing a 53 run partnership for the second wicket. Bell-Drummond was the second man to go when he was bowled by a Clark (2-27) yorker with the score on 59-2.

Billings (8) joined Northeast at the wicket but only lasted 8 balls before he was caught by Croft from the bowling of Parry (3-60). Stevens (2) was the next man in but it wasn’t long before the Lightning had their next wicket. This time it was Northeast who edged behind to Davies from the bowling of Clark.

The next wicket came from the very next delivery when new man to the crease Cowdrey (0) pushed a ball to at Mid-on and set off for a single, only to find himself stood next to Stevens at the non strikers end while Davies removed his bails. The Kent innings was starting to fall apart with the board showing 87-5 and it wasn’t long before things looked even worse, loosing veteran all-rounder Stevens 3 overs later.

Coles (10) came to the crease to join up with Alex Blake (89) and the pair started to swing their bats with some useful results. Coles was the next man to go trying to pull Faulkner (2-50) through the leg-side but the ball got big on him and ballooned to Jarvis at Mid-on. James Tredwell was the next man to join the settled Blake at the crease with the score at 119-7.  Blake continued to play his shots and was finding the boundaries with ease until another mix up allowed Petersen his second run out, this time Tredwell the man to go leaving Kent on 143-8 requiring a further 116 runs with their last 2 wickets.

Blake took this as his cue to ‘tee off’ against the Lancashire bowling attack realising that he was going to run out of partners. Claydon had mostly watched as Blake scored the runs when he decided to smash a delivery from Parry straight back at him for a sharp catch. This brought Hunn to the wicket with Kent still 97 runs off their target. Blake continued to strike some devastating blows to all parts of the ground as the Lancashire fielders scattered to the boundaries in hope of a miss timed shot.

Blake and Hunn shared a partnership worth 45 for the final wicket with Hunn contributing only 5. Blake was eventually the last man to go when he swung across the line to a Faulkner delivery that bowled him. Not before he had struck 5 fours and 7 sixes in his 56 ball innings.

This gave Lancashire a 51 run win and keeps alive their hopes of gaining a top 4 spot in Group B of this years Royal London One Day Cup. They will take on Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl a week on Monday in another must win game.