Lancashire edge Durham in tense game at Chester-le-Street

Reigning champions Lancashire Lightning edged a thrilling contest at Chester-le-Street to beat Durham Jets by four runs in the NatWest T20 Blast.

Lancashire set their hosts a steep target of 177 to win after Alviro Petersen (42) and Karl Brown (41) set a strong platform with a 68-run stand, before an unbroken partnership worth 71 runs between Liam Livingstone (43*) and captain Steven Croft (24*) propelled the visitors to 176/3.

Saqib Mahmood then starred with the ball, claiming key wickets in his figures of 3-31 to restrict the Jets to 172/5. Although Lancashire appear to be heading out of this year's campaign, this victory does give them a fleeting chance of scraping through, although they will have to beat Birmingham Bears in their final North Group game and rely on other results.

Durham did have a chance of claiming victory heading into the depths of the match after Callum MacLeod hit 45 from 31 balls and captain Mark Stoneman (36) had put the Jets in a good position at the start of their chase, but three wickets in four balls for Mahmood made scoring nearly three runs per ball too great of a task.

Paul Coughlin (26*) and Keaton Jennings (21*) added an unbroken stand worth 48 runs for the sixth wicket to take Durham closer than they might have got at one stage, but Lancashire held their nerve to secure their fifth win of the campaign and end Durham's unbeaten home record in the Blast this season.

In hindsight, the decision to put Lancashire into bat first did seem a strange one, but a powerplay score of 36/1 certainly vindicated Stoneman's logic. The ball was not coming onto the bat on a sluggish wicket and the early dismissal of Luis Reece for 14 did not help Lancashire's progress in the first six overs when he edged Coughlin (1-30) behind at 35/1.

However, Petersen and Brown began to hit their straps, starting the seventh over with a boundary apiece to help give the visitors some momentum. Brown continued to pick the gaps, crunching a superb boundary off the back foot through mid-wicket, while Petersen assisted with another solid innings for the Lightning.

Petersen has now scored 341 runs in his last six T20 innings for Lancashire at an average of 85.25, following his unbeaten 103 against Leicestershire in the previous match, helping to add a fifty-partnership inside seven overs with Brown. Lancashire's No.3 hit three boundaries in as many deliveries off Usman Arshad (1-43) to take the score beyond 100, before Petersen edged Arshad behind to Phil Mustard for 42 at 103/2.

Having added 68 runs together for the second wicket, Brown and Petersen were both dismissed in the space of four balls when Brown (41 off 26) was trapped lbw after missing a sweep off Scott Borthwick (1-25). Lancashire did slow down after these two quick wickets, but Livingstone and Croft were quick to put the visitors back on course to make the most of the foundation set by Petersen and Brown.

Boundaries continued to come regularly for the skipper and Livingstone - who made his England Lions debut this week - with the latter favouring a plethora of ramp shots to make the most of the lack of fielders behind square. Timing the ball continued to be difficult, but Livingstone hit a flat six in the 18th over to keep the momentum going towards the end of the innings.

A reverse ramp profited another boundary for Livingstone in the following over, as Lancashire added 71 runs in 40 balls for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand to finish on 176/3. Durham then found life similarly tough in the opening six overs, losing Mustard (8) in the fourth over when a slower ball from Jordan Clark (1-44) forced him to sky his shot into the gloves of Tom Moores at 18/1. 

Nathan Buck hampered Durham's progress inside the powerplay, conceding only 13 runs from his first three overs, before skipper Stoneman relieved the pressure that was building with two huge sixes over mid-wicket off Clark to earn 15 runs off the final over of the powerplay. Lancashire adopted their usual ploy of bowling spin in the middle overs to keep Durham in check and a key breakthrough came with Croft's second ball of the game when he bowled his Durham counterpart for 36 at 63/2.

Durham started to fall behind in their pursuit of 177 to win, although 14 runs from Luis Reece's first and only over - one the started with five wides - did help matters. MacLeod emerged as the next crucial wicket for Lancashire to take and, sure enough, Mahmood excelled with the ball in his first Twenty20 game of the season.

The England Lions paceman responded well after being ramped by MacLeod (45) with an inch-perfect yorker that removed the off-stump, before striking again two balls later to remove Ryan Pringle for a duck in identical fashion. Two quick wickets left Durham facing an uphill struggle, requiring 62 to win from the final five overs to record what would have been a crucial victory in their bid to reach the knockout stages.

After removing Pringle with the final ball of his second over, Mahmood claimed his third wicket in four balls when he had Gordon Muchall bowled for 22 to give him figures of 3-15 from his first three overs. At 124/4, Lancashire were now firm favourites to secure a fifth T20 win in what has been an inconsistent season for the defending champions, but they were taken to the wire by an unbroken partnership worth 48 runs between Coughlin (26*) and Jennings (21*). 

Jennings crunched a six over square leg before being dropped in the deep by Livingstone and Coughlin played his part with a maximum of his own to tarnish Mahmood's figures somewhat. However, Buck kept it tight in the final over, with Durham needing 18 from six balls for victory. The hosts needed 12 from from two balls, but a front-foot no-ball momentarily opened the door for Durham, who needed six runs from the last ball to tie the match.

Scoring two runs from the last ball, Durham fell five runs short of their target of 177, as Lancashire moved off the bottom of the North Group ahead of the final group game against Birmingham next Friday at Old Trafford.