Lancashire Lightning have named a 14-man squad for their final North Group NatWest T20 Blast match against Birmingham Bears at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday evening.
The reigning champions need a minor miracle in the last round of matches to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament, with a win against Birmingham not being enough in isolation. Lancashire also need Durham and Derbyshire's match at Chester-le-Street to either be a washout or tie, which would allow Ashley Giles' side to sneak into fourth place, assuming their net run rate is good enough to leapfrog Warwickshire.
After winning two of their last four matches, including their latest victory against Durham last Friday, Lancashire have a faint chance of making it to the quarter-finals for the eleventh time. Should Lancashire fail to do so, it will only be the fourth time in 15 seasons that the Lightning have failed to advance from the group stages.
Unlike Lancashire, the Bears have their Twenty20 destiny in their own hands, knowing that a win at Old Trafford would secure a place in the knockout stages and end the campaign for the chasing pack. Lancashire's win at Durham featured strong performances from Alviro Petersen, Karl Brown and Liam Livingstone, who all made scores in the forties to help the visitors post a target of 177.
Saqib Mahmood then took three wickets in the Durham run-chase, as Lancashire won by four runs to present them with an unlikely chance of progressing from the North Group. The form of Petersen has been a revelation in Lancashire's T20 side of late, with the South-African taking his tally to 341 runs in his last six innings in the Blast, including an unbeaten century against Leicestershire.
Birmingham 15-man squad: Ian Bell (c), Keith Barker, Rikki Clarke, Laurie Evans, Recordo Gordon, Sam Hain, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Ateeq Javid, Matt Lamb, Jeetan Patel, Josh Poysden, William Porterfield, Aaron Thompson, Matthew Wade (wk), Chris Wright.
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