MATCH REPORT: Steelbacks win high-scoring Blast group finale
Northamptonshire Steelbacks won a high-scoring game by four wickets to clinch second place in the Vitality Blast North Group table and with it a home quarter-final against Somerset. For Lancashire Lightning the defeat was the first in a home group match since September 2020 and means they will travel to Hove to play Sussex in the quarter-finals on Wednesday 4 September.
After Lancashire had posted a challenging 201 for nine in which new signing George Dockrell top-scored with 45, Northamptonshire made a blistering start and despite being pegged back by an excellent mid-innings four over spell of two for 23 by Luke Wells, and a late innings wobble when three wickets fell for three runs, the visitors eased home on 203 for six with eight balls to spare.
Set a target of 202 the Steelbacks opening pair of Ricardo Vasconcelos and Matthew Breetzke hammered 2 sixes and 13 fours in a breathtaking assault that produced 85 runs from the six over powerplay.
The Lightning struggled to contain the mayhem that had reached a Northamptonshire first wicket record against Lancashire of 102 from just 47 balls by the time Matty Hurst held a juggling catch off Wells to send back Vasconcelos for 36 off 23 balls.
It was South African overseas batter Breetzke who did the majority of the damage, racing to his fifty off 19 balls and surviving a dropped catch on 63 before holing out to Chris Green at deep midwicket off Wells for a fine 76 (5 sixes, 7 fours) off only 31 balls with Northamptonshire 118 for two and needing 84 runs off 64 balls.
Liam Livingstone trapped Saif Zaib lbw for 4, but the experienced pair of Steelbacks captain David Willey and Ravi Bopara took the visitors steadily towards their target with a 59-run partnership in 6 overs.
There was late drama as 3 wickets fell for 3 runs in 10 balls after Willey was spectacularly caught for 26 by a relay catch between Wood and Steven Croft at long-on, Bopara fell lbw to Saqib Mahmood for 36 and Lewis McManus pulled Livingstone to Wells at deep square leg to have the Steelbacks on 192 for six needing 10 runs off 11 balls.
A boundary by Gus Miller (5 not out) eased that pressure and Ashton Agar (7 not out) finished matters with a straight six.
It was a late innings surge by Dockrell that had helped the Lightning post a challenging total after being put into bat on a good wicket.
In a helter-skelter start that saw 19 runs taken from the first two overs, Steelbacks seamer Jack White struck two early blows in the third over by dismissing Wells for 10 and Phil Salt for 9 in the space of three balls.
Lightning skipper Jennings continued the attack by striking five of his first 11 balls to the boundary but departed for 24 when he skied a return catch from the twelfth to bowler White (a career-best 3 for 16) leaving Lancashire 46 for three after 5 overs.
Livingstone greeted the introduction of both Freddie Heldreich and Zaib into the attack by taking a six off each and added a third maximum off the last ball of the tenth over from Agar to have Lancashire well positioned on 93 for three at the halfway point of the innings.
But Livingstone perished for 36 off 24 balls when caught by Vasconcelos off Heldreich just inside the boundary rope at deep midwicket to end a 55-run partnership with Hurst who followed for 30 (off 22 balls) after pulling Bopara to Ben Sanderson at deep square leg with the Lightning 115 for five in the 13th over.
Croft, who reached 5,000 T20 runs for Lancashire in this competition when cutting Heldreich for four, joined forces with Dockrell to keep the scoring momentum going with a 44-run partnership off 23 balls before he skied a catch to Bopara off Willey having made 22.
Dockrell, in his first innings for the Lightning, announced his arrival at the crease in the fourteenth over with a six off Heldreich and it was his fine innings of 45 (2 fours, 2 sixes) that propelled the Lightning through the closing overs with Wood contributing an unbeaten 15 off 6 balls.
That set the visitors a target of 202 which they accomplished in the 19th over with the defeat also the first time Lancashire have lost when posting a total over two hundred when batting first.
Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings paid tribute to Steelbacks’ Matthew Breetzke after the visitors overseas batter had produced a stunning innings in tonight’s quarter-final.
“Breetzke played out of his skin,” he said. “I haven’t quite seen hitting like that, especially up top, in a long time. He played superbly well.
“From that point they were ahead of the game, and he put them in a massively good position.
“You just have to take in that he is playing well, so you keep trying different things, keep going to different options and hopefully one just goes to hand.
“It was that sort of game where if somebody does have a day like that they can take the game away from you which actually makes it exciting.
“I thought it was a really good game and it was an outstanding surface all the way through and he just played superbly well.
Jennings was pleased with his side’s aggressive approach after Lancashire were put into bat.
“That’s the way we’ve tried to do things this year,” he said.
“Regardless of how many wickets we’ve lost we want to keep going and try post ourselves a score. We got 200 on a good surface where we never really felt like we had got going.”
And the Lightning skipper is already looking forward to the quarter-final against Sussex.
“I thought the boys have played fantastically well over the last 14 group games,” he added.
“It’s not just been this game, look at our side from the first five games to what it is now. Everyone involved has stuck their hands up.
“We set out at the start to qualify for the quarter-finals. Hove is a lovely place to go and play so let’s go down south and play some good cricket and have some fun.
“Once you get into the knockout stage you give yourself a chance. Let’s see what happens. All the teams are three games away from winning the competition.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams, Dan Adams