Preview: Worcestershire Rapids v Lancashire Lightning - NatWest T20 Blast

Jos Butler has been named in a 14-man Lancashire Lightning squad for their trip to New Road, as they prepare to take on Worcestershire Rapids in a pivotal NatWest T20 Blast North Group game.

Lancashire know that they need to strike a late run of form in the T20 format to progress to the knockout stages, with their recent defeat against rivals Yorkshire Vikings at Headingley resigning Ashley Giles' side to their fifth defeat of the campaign. 

The defending champions will be hoping for a similar result from the reverse fixture, as Lancashire achieved their second-largest victory ever in Twenty20 cricket when the sides met at Old Trafford at the end of June. Lancashire's 96-run win featured Stephen Parry claiming the best figures by a Lancashire player (5-13) after the Rapids fell apart in their run-chase, as the visitors were bowled out for 53.

Buttler's sudden availability comes after he and Lancashire teammate, James Anderson, were both left out of England's 12-man squad for the first Test against Pakistan, with Buttler now vying to prove he has something to offer in the longer formats, as well as his explosive hitting in white-ball cricket.

The heavy defeat suffered by Worcestershire in June was something of a blip given their general form in this year's tournament, given that the Rapids are firmly in the frame to secure a place in the quarter-finals. Sitting in third place on 10 points after as many matches, Worcester know that a victory against Lancashire could go a long way towards cementing their qualification from the North Group and perhaps a home quarter-final.

Lancashire's latest defeat against Yorkshire last Friday came in a rain-affected game at Headingley, with the Vikings edging a five-run win after Lancashire failed to chase 142. Despite Worcestershire's strong position in the North Group, the Rapids are without a win in the shortest format since June 10 when they beat Northamptonshire by three wickets.

Since then, the Rapids have suffered three defeats - including the resounding 96-run loss to Lancashire - and also two washouts away at Durham and Leicestershire. The hosts will have all the incentive they need to secure their first win in six attempts, but they will have to overcome a Lancashire side fitted with Buttler.

Nathan Buck is the form player in Lancashire's Twenty20 side, with his haul of 10 wickets in three matches including career-best figures against Birmingham Bears. His economy of 5.73 has given Lancashire strength inside the powerplay and Buck made early inroads in the previous game against Worcester, taking 3-12 to sweep aside the Rapids' top-order batsmen.

Buttler's inclusion means that loan-signing Tom Moores may not be required for white-ball cricket as often as first thought, with Steven Croft holding on to the gloves in the County Championship. Worcester will have international talent of their own at their disposal, with seam duo Kyle Abbott and  Matt Henry offering a real threat in the bowling department.

Worcestershire 12-man squad: Daryll Mitchell (c), Kyle Abbott, Ed Barnard, Joe Clarke, Ben Cox (wk), Brett D'Oliveira, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Joe Leach, Matt Henry, George Rhodes, Jack Shantry, Ross Whitely.

Lancashire 14-man squad: Steven Croft (c), Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Jos Buttler (wk), Jordan Clark, George Edwards, Rob Jones, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Stephen Parry, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter.

Lancashire rearguard secures tense draw against Notts at Trent Bridge

Haseeb Hameed (122) recorded his second century of the season, but Lancashire were made to work hard for a final-day draw against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in the Specsavers County Championship.

The Bolton batsman's second hundred in three Championship matches proved vital, as a nerve-shredding final day depended on the efforts of the 19-year-old opener, as well as the Red Rose captain Steven Croft, who battled for over three hours for his 34 not out from 141 deliveries to guide his side home with three wickets in hand.

Lancashire closed on 304/7 after Hameed and Tom Smith achieved 151 runs for the opening stand, but a nervous flurry of wickets after lunch put the game back in the balance when four wickets fell for just 29 runs following Hameed's career-best score of 122, an innings that lasted nearly five hours. The visitors slumped from the comfortable position of 209/1 to 223/5 in the afternoon session, putting Notts in the driving seat despite the efforts of Lancashire's opening partnership.

It was then up to Croft, the captain and wicketkeeper, to resist a rejuvenated Notts attack, one that was bolstered by the international class of Stuart Broad (2-45) and Imran Tahir. Croft's determination allowed Lancashire to secure a nine-point draw, with Jordan Clark's innings of 11 from 69 balls gaining an honourable mention in the grand scheme of a nail-bitting fixture.

The efforts of Smith and Hameed had taken Lancashire within 70 runs of levelling the scores with their overnight stand of 128 runs, with both batsmen recording half-centuries yesterday evening after Notts posted 474 and a lead of 198 runs. For the first hour of the day, their partnership continued to frustrate the hosts, without ever coming into any trouble from a potentially dangerous bowling attack.

Lancashire only added 23 runs in the first hour, which was enough to allow Smith and Hameed to take their partnership to 150 in 376 balls, with Smith beating the 70 he made in the first innings. However, he only just managed to get to 71 before the delivery of the session from Harry Gurney (2-82) ended the opening partnership at 151/1.

Smith edged a rising delivery from Gurney into the hands of Steven Mullaney at slip, but Luke Procter stepped up with a similarly determined approach, scoring 13 off 74 balls to add 58 runs for the second wicket either side of lunch. Having scored his maiden first-class century against Warwickshire 14 days ago, Hameed recorded his second hundred of the season in 237 balls, with this milestone helping to take Lancashire into the lead in the final over of the session.

Entering lunch on 206/1 with a slender lead of eight runs, Lancashire would have been relatively assured of their ability to bat for the rest of the fourth day to save the draw, but a devastating spell after the interval made Lancashire's draw anything but concrete. Overcast conditions, twinned with the hosts taking the new ball immediately after lunch, made the afternoon session an incredibly testing one for the visitors, with the Red Rose losing four wickets for the addition of 43 runs in the penultimate session of the match.

Nottinghamshire were able to call upon one of England's frontline wicket-takers in Broad to put them back in the picture, with his two wickets in four balls accounting for Procter and Alviro Petersen in the same over. First, Broad had Procter trapped lbw to end his defiant innings, before Petersen had his stumps decimated when he left a straight ball and was bowled for 4 having hit his first ball to the boundary.

Two quick wickets put a lot of pressure onto Hameed's young, yet perfectly capable shoulder's, but his marathon of an innings made it increasingly difficult to expect the 19-year-old to carry his bat. Having batted for nearly five hours and after facing 284 balls, Hameed's valiant knock came to an end, when he was the third wicket to fall for 22 runs.

Brett Hutton (2-48) struck two blows in the same over - the first over a new spell - encouraging Hameed to edge behind to Riki Wessels for a career-best 122, before getting one to stick in the pitch on Liam Livingstone (2), who could only fend his shot to Michael Lumb at mid-on. Hutton's dual success meant that Lancashire had fallen from 209/1 to 233/5, with Nottinghamshire now holding the edge on the approach to tea.

By the time tea arrived, captain Croft had already faced 73 balls, adding just nine runs with his side firmly in survival mode. He and Karl Brown (12) continued to watch the overs tick by in the hope of salvaging a draw, although Middlesex's innings win over Yorkshire at Scarborough meant that Lancashire would not be top of the table by the end of this round of matches.

Imran Tahir (1-93) swung the pendulum back in Nottinghamshire's favour when he forced a superb one-handed catch at short-leg by Brendan Taylor to remove Brown shortly after the break, with the onus now resting primarily with the Lancashire skipper. An attritional final day was typified by Croft and Clark's partnership for the seventh wicket, as they happily defended their way towards safety without any fear of how many runs they were accumulating, but instead, focusing solely on how many overs were left in the day, weighed up against the lead Lancashire were beginning to build.

Croft and Clark were able to take a crucial 18 overs out of the game with their rearguard approach, but the hosts threatened to throw a late twist into the equation when Gurney had Clark bowled for a determined 11 from 69 deliveries at 287/7. That final glimpse of success for Notts secured a valuable nine-point draw for the visitors, with Croft's unbeaten innings of 34 from 141 balls - as well as Hameed's earlier efforts - proving decisive on the final day.

Having hit back-to-back fours to take the lead beyond 100, the players shook hands at 5.40pm, with Lancashire's draw putting them one point behind Middlesex. Ashley Giles' side are not in action during the next round of matches, with their next red-ball outing coming against Durham at Southport   on July 16.

Smith and Hameed restore balance with century-stand against Notts

Tom Smith (66*) and Haseeb Hameed (58*) both hit unbeaten half-centuries in Lancashire's second innings to help the visitors recover after enduring a strong effort with the bat from Nottinghamshire on Day Three at Trent Bridge.

The hosts posted a mammoth total of 474 in their first innings, with their top nine batsmen all scoring 30 or more runs, handing Notts a healthy lead of 198 runs after Lancashire were bowled out for 276. But a defiant and unbroken partnership worth 128 runs between Smith and Hameed helped reduce the deficit to 70 runs, with all ten second-innings wickets intact heading into the final day.

Nottinghamshire claimed maximum batting points after Samit Patel (67) and Riki Wessels (62) added 105 runs for the sixth wicket, before lower-order runs from Stuart Broad and Brett Hutton - who both made 46 - strengthened their total into a potentially match-winning situation, were it not for the fact that Lancashire's openers stood firm for 49 overs to reach stumps unscathed.

Resuming the third day with their partnership already worth 62 runs, Patel and Wessels rubbed salt into Lancashire's wounds by surviving testing spells from Kyle Jarvis (2-108) and Neil Wagner to bat the first hour without offering the visitors a passage back into the game. Wessels secured his half-century inside the first hour of the day, adding to his overnight score of 25 to reach fifty in 107 balls with eight boundaries.

The hundred-partnership followed in 196 balls and at this stage in the day, it was difficult to see where a breakthrough was coming from, but Smith (2-70) - who would later make his second fifty of the match - extracted two wickets in the space of four overs to see the back of both Patel and Wessels in quick succession. First, the Lancashire all-rounder had Patel caught behind by Steven Croft for 67, before a rising delivery took the edge of Wessels' bat, forcing Liam Livingstone to hold on at first slip with the score at 369/7.

Broad's renowned capabilities with the bat in the lower order suggested that he would not settle for the four batting points already achieved by the Nottinghamshire batsmen who had come before him and his purposeful innings of 46 from 60 balls proved vital in helping the home side reach 400 with a ball to spare. By the time Notts had secured a fifth batting point, Broad had hit 33 from 30 deliveries, with his seven boundaries causing Lancashire's heads to drop even further at the sight of yet more batsmen going on to make telling contributions to the scorecard.

An upbeat home crowd welcomed Broad and Hutton back to the pavilion with the score at 416/7 and the lead at 140 runs by the time lunch arrived and Lancashire continued to find life hard on an increasingly friendly batting wicket. Hutton lived an initially charmed life, twice edging Jarvis through the gap in the slip cordon in the same over, but he became the ninth Nottinghamshire batsman to reach 30 when he and Broad added fifty runs in only 58 balls for the eighth wicket.

Matthew Parkinson's (1-68) introduction after the interval reaped immediate success for the Red Rose, as the leg-break bowler had Broad bowled four runs shy of a half-century at 448/8 with his first ball of a new spell. Imran Tahir (7) followed shortly afterwards when he fended a Wagner bouncer to Livingstone, who took a diving catch to account for the first and only single-figure score of the Notts innings.

Hutton followed Broad by falling four runs shy of his fifty when he was comprehensively bowled by Wagner, who removed two stumps from the ground to finish with figures of 3-107, possibly his final act with the ball for Lancashire given the state of the game. The home side would have hoped that Lancashire's spirited comeback with the ball signalled success of their own, but Lancashire ensured that their hosts endured a wicketless session and a half before the close.

Smith, who top-scored with 70 in Lancashire's first innings, supported teenager Hameed with an unbroken partnership for the first wicket worth 128 runs, cutting Nottinghamshire's sizeable first-innings lead from 198 to 70 runs. The openers achieved a fifty-partnership on the stroke of tea in 89 deliveries, before batting for the entire final session to restore Lancashire's position in the game into a much more pleasing one.

Hameed progressed to his fifth half-century of the season in 112 balls with seven boundaries, while the hundred-partnership effectively cut the 198-run lead in half when Lancashire reached 101/0 inside the 38th over. Smith concluded the third day by reaching back-to-back fifties in the game, his second fifty coming in 120 balls with six fours, as Lancashire reached stumps revitalised by the application demonstrated by the opening partnership between their former captain and teenage prodigy.

Team effort puts Notts in control against Lancashire at Trent Bridge

All of Nottinghamshire's batsmen made contributions to their total of 303/5, as the hosts took a 27-run lead over Lancashire on Day Two at Trent Bridge in the Specsavers County Championship.

The openers Jake Libby (54) and Steven Mullaney (43) set the tone with a solid 86-run stand for the first wicket, before Samit Patel (51*) and Michael Lumb (43) bolstered the total further. Lancashire were bowled out for 276 in the second over of the day and their first innings total was made to look inadequate when several of Nottinghamshire's batsmen made starts with the bat.

Bad light saw a delay of 40 minutes at the start of the evening session, before causing play to finish early with Notts on 303/5. Lancashire endured a tough day in the field after Imran Tahir's fifth ball of the day ended their first innings. The South-African spinner finished with figures of 4-81 to put his side in control after removing Matthew Parkinson lbw for 3 with the eleventh ball of the day to dismiss Lancashire for 276.

Libby and captain Mullaney then set the tone beautifully for Notts and scored freely to put a serious dent in Lancashire's total, with both openers hitting their first respective deliveries for a boundary. The fifty-partnership was achieved in a mere 63 balls and a golden opportunity to find the breakthrough was squandered when Matthew Parkinson dropped Mullaney on 33 at deep square leg.

Thankfully, his drop did not prove too costly, although Mullaney's eye-catching innings of 43 with nine boundaries largely set the tone for a strong day with the bat for his side. Adding ten more runs to his score, the Notts skipper played on to Kyle Jarvis (2-79) after adding 86 runs with young Libby, who went on to secure a half-century just before lunch in 68 deliveries.

Lancashire enjoyed a good spell after lunch, reducing Notts from 120/1 to 136/3 when Jarvis and Neil Wagner (1-68) had Libby and Greg Smith dismissed in quick succession. Libby fell first, edging a half-hearted prod behind to Steven Croft off Wagner, as he failed to add any more runs to his lunchtime score of 54, before Smith was trapped lbw by Jarvis for 30.

Jarvis' spell continued to cause Nottinghamshire's batsmen problems, as he became engaged in a riveting battle with Zimbabwean compatriot Brendan Taylor, but the experience batsman was able to get on top of Jarvis, adding a further 84 runs with Lumb for the fourth-wicket stand. It was clear to see that their partnership had been forced to take a much more attritional passage, owing to Lancashire's strong comeback with the ball after lunch, but Taylor brought up the fifty-partnership in style with a straight six off Parkinson.

The Zimbabwean batsman repeated the shot again on the approach to tea, but he was unable to make it through to the interval, as Jordan Clark (2-58) had him dismissed at 210/4. Clark's bouncer forced Taylor to duck out of the way, but Taylor's bat was left hanging and he skied a routine catch to Tom Smith to give Lancashire respite before the break.

Clark had his second wicket after tea, taking a sharp return catch off his own bowling with one hand to remove Lumb for 43, but a combination of resilient batting and bad light meant that this was Lancashire's final breakthrough of the day. Patel led the way with a calm and assured half-century, sharing an unbroken partnership worth 62 runs with Riki Wessels (25*) to extend Nottinghamshire's lead to 27 runs by stumps.

Patel reached fifty in 77 balls with seven boundaries, as his partnership with Wessels moved along at a good pace either side of a 40-minute delay for bad light, as they added the first fifty runs of their stand in 88 deliveries, taking Notts to a third batting point in the closing stages of a brilliant day for the home side and a disappointing one for the Division One front runners.

Broad and Tahir give Notts the edge against Lancashire

Nottinghamshire's international duo Stuart Broad (3-50) and Imran Tahir (3-78) took three wickets apiece to put the hosts in a strong position against table-toppers Lancashire on the first day at Trent Bridge in the Specsavers County Championship.

Tom Smith led the way for Lancashire, scoring a gritty 70 from 200 balls, but the Red Rose squandered a strong platform of 118/1, losing eight wickets for 135 runs to finish the first day on 273/9. Smith shared 84 runs with Luke Procter (48) for the second wicket to put Lancashire in command around lunchtime after deciding to bat first, but Notts fought back to end the day in the ascendancy.

The tricky South African leg-break bowler Tahir struck important breakthroughs on his first Championship appearance of the season for Notts, including the prized scalp of Smith, who he had stumped at an important juncture in proceedings, while Broad bowled an economical 25 overs, collecting tidy figures of 3-50.

Lancashire lost an early wicket when opener Haseeb Hameed was caught in the gully by Michael Lumb off Brett Hutton (1-42) for 16, with his inside edge ricocheting off his pad and ballooning into the slip cordon at 34/1. The partnership between Smith and Procter, primarily before lunch, put Lancashire in an excellent position, with Procter's fluency at the crease helping the visitors to add runs at a good pace.

A largely positive day for Tahir started badly, as a loose first over allowed Procter to bring up the fifty-partnership off 47 balls, hitting the spinner's first ball - a no-ball - to the boundary, with his first over leaking 13 runs. Procter's seven boundaries before the lunch interval helped the visitors to reach 108/1, vindicating their decision to bat first at the toss, while Smith continued to plug away against one of the stronger bowling attacks in the country.

However, a mini collapse after lunch put the match back in the balance, as Procter (48) was bowled two runs shy of his fifty, attempting an expansive shot to Tahir at 118/2. In the context of the first day, Smith's innings proved to be crucial and the former Lancashire captain achieved only his second half-century of the season in 113 balls with seven fours.

Wickets continued to fall at the other end, with Alviro Petersen (11) edging Broad down the leg-side behind to Riki Wessels and captain Steven Croft followed (9) lbw to Tahir, but Karl Brown was able to apply a counterpunch to Broad's renewed optimism, assisting Smith to reach 192/4 at tea. Having batted for four hours prior to the interval, Smith became the fifth wicket to fall, with Tahir dragging the opening batsmen a long way down the track and beating him with sharp turn, offering Wessels a routine stumping at 199/5.

With their confidence partially dented, Lancashire were made to work hard for their runs in the evening session, but the loss of Karl Brown (36) when the new ball arrived signalled another patchy spell for the visitors on what should have been a largely positive day with the bat. Harry Gurney (2-53) struck in his second over with the new ball, forcing Brown to edge behind to Wessels after adding 40 runs with Liam Livingstone.

Jordan Clark survived a vociferous appeal from Gurney shortly after this wicket for another caught behind, but he managed to add just one run to the total before tamely playing the ball back into Broad's hands at 250/7. Lancashire lost three quick wickets before the close for the addition of as many runs, with Neil Wagner (0) taking a nasty blow to the head in the process of his departure.

The Kiwi got a bouncer from Gurney that caught him on the back of the head and while he was taken aback by the shock of being hit, the ball trickled onto his stumps with enough power to dislodge one of the bails. Wagner's availability for the rest of this match will have to be decided depending on the severity of his injury, but if he is unable to turn out when Lancashire take their turn to bowl, it will leave a big gap in the bowling ranks.

Livingstone's charmed innings of 33 from 69 balls featured several near-misses, but his luck finally ran out when he mistimed a swipe off Broad, forcing Samit Patel to take a well-judged catch at point after the ball flew high into the air off Livingstone's bat. Kyle Jarvis (17*) and Matthew Parkinson (3*) allowed Lancashire to reach stumps nine down for 273, with Broad and Tahir's wickets putting Nottinghamshire in the ascendancy after Smith and Procter's strong partnership in the morning session.

Preview: Nottinghamshire v Lancashire - Specsavers CC

Neil Wagner will play in his final match for Lancashire before meeting up with New Zealand, as the Red Rose prepare for their Specsavers County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on Sunday.

Ashley Giles' side extended their lead at the top of Division One in their last four-day outing against Middlesex to nine points after a high-scoring and rain-affected draw at Lord's. Alviro Petersen hit 191 in Lancashire's first and only innings of 513, but a flat batting track and a final-day washout resigned the game to an inevitable draw.

Nottinghamshire also drew their last Championship match against Warwickshire, leaving them seventh in the first division, having played more games than any other team (9). Lancashire were due to have James Anderson available for this match, but the England seamer is being rested ahead of the Test series against Pakistan with a shoulder injury.

However, Stuart Broad remains available for Notts and he has been named in a 13-man squad alongside South-African leg-spinner, Imran Tahir. Wagner will be hoping to sign off in the same manner in which he started life at Lancashire, after the Kiwi paceman took 11 wickets on his debut against Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford in Lancashire's first Championship match of the season.

Wagner's career-best match haul of 11-111 included first-innings figures of 6-66, the best figures by a Lancashire player on debut since 1923. He then took another five wickets (5-45) in Nottinghamshire's second innings to guide the Red Rose to victory in the 2016 curtain raiser, one of three victories secured by the Division One leaders at the halfway stage in their campaign.

Notts captain and wicketkeeper Chris Read could make a return to action after five weeks on the sidelines with a hand injury, reinforced by the international class of Broad and Tahir in the bowling department. On paper, Nottinghamshire are one of the strongest outfits in the first division, even without Broad's fleeing availability, but the Trent Bridge outfit have managed only one win in nine matches this season in red-ball cricket.

Mick Newell's side are without victory since their first game of the season against Surrey at home and since then they have suffered four defeats. More recently, this poor run in four-day cricket has included a 228-run defeat at the hands of Surrey at The Oval and a win for Hampshire by 69 runs at Southampton.

Steven Croft remains behind the stumps in the absence of Alex Davies and Jos Buttler, as Lancashire name the same 12-man squad that travelled to North London for the Middlesex match. Tom Bailey remains absent with a side strain, while Simon Kerrigan is also out of action due to a small back injury, one that has given 19-year-old spinner, Matthew Parkinson, an opportunity to show what he is capable of in the First Team.

Nottinghamshire 13-man squad: Chris Read (c/wk), Stuart Broad, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Jake Libby, Ben Kitt, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Greg Smith, Imran Tahir, Brendan Taylor, Riki Wessels.

Lancashire 12-man squad: Steven Croft (c/wk), Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Liam Livingstone, Matthew Parkinson, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith, Neil Wagner.

Lancashire suffer tense defeat to Yorkshire in T20 thriller

Lancashire Lightning lost by five runs at Headingley in an incredibly tense NatWest T20 Blast match against Roses rivals Yorkshire Vikings despite a flourish of sixes from Liam Livingstone.

Chasing 142 to win under lights, Lancashire were bowled out for 136 inside 18 overs after Livingstone hit 36 from 18 balls, including three consecutive sixes. In a game reduced to 18 overs per side due to persistent rain before the start of play, Lancashire put Yorkshire into bat and the hosts posted 141/7.

Nathan Buck (3-25) had another memorable day with the ball to take his tally to ten wickets in three Twenty20 matches this season, but Steven Patterson (3-23) led a strong bowling performance from Yorkshire, inflicting Lancashire's fifth defeat in nine matches this campaign, while Yorkshire collected only their second win of the tournament.

Livingstone's three maximums in as many deliveries tilted the game in Lancashire's favour, but when he and Steven Croft (5) fell in consecutive balls in the same over, it put a huge dent in the Lightning's run-chase. A spirited effort from Stephen Parry - who hit 15 off 9 balls - took Lancashire to within six runs of an unlikely victory, but the reigning champions fell short of their target of 142.

There were no outstanding contributions with the bat for Yorkshire, but instead a host of cameos. Opener Adam Lyth backed up his century against Lancashire in the 50-over competition with back-to-back sixes off Jordan Clark in the second over, profiting 21 runs to give Yorkshire a fast start in the five-over powerplay. 

Buck's phenomenal run in white-ball cricket continued when he had Lyth caught well by Luke Procter for 23 off 14 balls and he had Yorkshire's other opening batsman out in the same over, as Alex Lees drove into the hands of Livingstone for 5 at 32/2. Two wickets in the space of three balls allowed Lancashire to drag it back after an explosive start and the rotation of the bowlers kept Yorkshire's batsmen guessing.

Jack Leaning featured strongly for the hosts, hitting a brisk 29 including a maximum off Croft, but Clark struck a breakthrough with his first ball of a new spell, deceiving Leaning with a slower-ball yorker at 76/3. New Zealand's Kane Williamson then added 28 off 22 deliveries before Parry (1-21) had him bowled with his left-arm spin.

George Edwards (2-24) claimed the first of two quick wickets when he made amends for a misfield that went for a boundary, removing Tim Bresnan (5) cheaply with the first ball of a new spell. The dangerous all-rounder was caught well on the boundary by Clark and Buck's re-introduction signalled another breakthrough, this time the huge wicket of Gary Ballance for 12 when he was held by Alviro Petersen in the deep at 116/6.

Andrew Hodd (2) repeated Bresnan's dismissal when he was caught at long-on by Clark off Edwards, as Yorkshire posted 141/7 after 18 overs courtesy of Will Rhodes' unbeaten 24 from 15 deliveries. Petersen (15) relieved some of the early pressure with a maximum off Bresnan in the third over, but Clark fell for 9 when Lyth held on to a brilliant diving catch at fine leg, the first of three wickets for Patterson.

Rhodes backed up his strong performance with the bat when he struck a blow with only his second ball, as Petersen picked out Leaning on the leg-side boundary at 26/2. Karl Brown offered Lancashire a strong conclusion to the powerplay, thumping Rhodes for a four and then a six over square-leg, but the Yorkshire spinners kept it tight and pressure started to build on the visitors.

This pressure began to take its toll and Brown became the third Yorkshire wicket when he was bowled by Azeem Rafiq (1-20) attempting to sweep the spinner after two tight overs from him and Karl Carver (2-34). Livingstone, who hit a 21-ball fifty when the sides met earlier this season at Old Trafford, attempted to deliver another match-winning innings for the Red Rose across the Pennines, with his three sixes in a row off Carver putting Lancashire in the driving seat.

Having hit the spinner for three sixes off the first three balls of the over, Lancashire failed to resist temptation, as a great over became a disappointing one. First, the skipper Croft (5) was caught by Leaning off Carver attempting to repeat Livingstone's exploits and then Livingstone fell the next ball for 36 off 18 balls, with Ballance holding onto the catch on the leg-side boundary. 

Arron Lilley (2) followed cheaply to Rhodes, with Carver following up his two important wickets with a catch on the boundary at 92/6, as Lancashire lost their third wicket for five runs in the space of nine balls. Rain started to come down hard at Headingley, but the umpires decided to let the game continue, meaning that Lancashire kept half an eye on Duckworth Lewis in the closing stages of their run-chase.

Luke Procter hit Bresnan for a straight boundary, but fell the next ball for 16 when he picked out Carver on the leg-side fence at 112/7. Tom Moores (9) repeated the fate when he hit Patterson for a boundary before hauling out to Lyth at long-off and Bresnan then had Buck out for no score when he too was held by Lyth.

Two late boundaries for Parry took Lancashire within touching distance of what would have been a vital victory, but Patterson returned to claim his third wicket when he had Parry caught behind for 15.