MATCH REPORT: Lancashire tie Vitality Blast thriller with Derbyshire
Lancashire and Derbyshire produced a last ball Vitality Blast thriller that ended in a tie at Emirates Old Trafford.
Chasing a target of 151, Lancashire needed 38 off 17 balls with four wickets left. Matty Hurst and Jack Blatherwick both hit sixes in the 19th over with 17 runs taken off Akif Javed to leave 13 required off the last.
Blatherwick took three from the first two balls of the last over but was run out attempting a second run. A single by Tom Hartley put Hurst on strike who hit the fourth and fifth balls from Nick Potts over extra cover for four to level the scores. Potts held his nerve to produce the perfect yorker with the final delivery to bowl Hurst for 30 off 17 balls leaving Lancashire 150-7.
The result means Lightning’s hopes of qualifying from the North Group are not completely ended, but the likely remain on finishing as one of the best two third-placed teams. They currently reside in third place of those standings and will have to likely win both of their final two matches against Yorkshire on Friday and Durham on Sunday, while hoping results elsewhere go in their favour.
The story of the match was that Derbyshire were restricted to 150-9 after winning the toss, James Anderson excellent again with 2-21 off fours overs, while Liam Livingstone took 2-24 as the spinners combined well to have the visitors struggling in the second half of their innings.
But after a fast start of 49-1 from the six over powerplay, Lancashire’s batters struggled against the visitor’s spinners with Sufyan Moqim taking an excellent 3-15 from his 4 overs. The Lightning’s chances of victory looked to be diminishing at 80-4 after 13 overs and later 113-6 with 38 needed from 17 balls before Hurst and Blatherwick took them so close.
At the start of the day, Anderson bowled a magnificent three over opening spell of 2-12 that countered some lusty blows by Aneurin Donald and Martin Andersson that helped Derbyshire end the six over powerplay on 55-2.
Anderson had Donald caught behind for 19 and Yousaf Bin Naeem caught at deep square leg for 7 before Shadab Khan, on his Lancashire home debut, trapped Wayne Madsen lbw for 13 with a googly from his fifth delivery to have the Falcons 66-3 in the eighth.
Martin Andersson hit Shadab for six at the start of the 12th over, but that was the only boundary struck in a 26-ball mid innings as Shadab and Tom Hartley combined effectively to slow the scoring.
That pressure brought reward as Derbyshire lost four wickets for 5 runs in 10 balls.
Having reached their fifty partnership off 39 balls, Andersson swept the next delivery from Liam Livingstone into the hands of Jack Blatherwick at deep backward square for 49 who then bowled Matt Montgomery for 26 two balls later.
When Ross Whiteley swung Hartley to deep backward square and Nick Potts was bowled from consecutive deliveries, Derbyshire were suddenly struggling on 121-7 after 16 overs.
Amrit Basra with a run-a-ball 17 helped push the total up to 150-9 from the Falcons twenty overs.
That looked to be below par, and Lightning openers Keaton Jennings and Michael Jones made a quick start with 34 runs taken from the first four overs, Jennings hitting spinner Montgomery for six over long-on in the second and dishing out that treatment to paceman Akif Javed in the fourth.
Jennings was bowled by Montgomery for 23 midway through the fifth, and Jones by Javed for 28 in the ninth to have Lancashire 61-2.
In a repeat of the Lancashire innings, it was the Derbyshire spinners who found success, restricting the scoring with Moqim taking two wickets in two balls to have Ben McDermott superbly caught by Bin Naeem running in from deep midwicket for 7 and Joe Moores caught behind to have the Lightning 80-4 after 13 overs.
That heaped the pressure on Livingstone who hit Moqim for six in the 15th over but departed for 31 attempting to repeat the shot off the next ball but caught on the deep midwicket boundary.
It meant Lancashire, 100-5, required 51 off 5 overs and when Shadab holed out to deep midwicket off Montgomery for 7 to leave 38 needed off 17 balls, Lancashire were in trouble.
To their credit Hurst and Blatherwick nearly pulled off a fantastic run chase, but it was Potts who had the final say.
“Two points are better than nowt,” reflected Keaton Jennings.
“I think the result is probably reflecting how we played. I think there were moments within the game where we didn't play as well as we could have, both bat and in the field.
“I thought we actually bowled really well. I thought that score (150) was about par, maybe just under. I felt like our bowling unit as a whole did a really good job to get to that target.
“I don't think as a batting group we kind of really put ourselves in a great position to win it. I thought Hursty and the boys at the end played beautifully to get us back in the scrap. “
“I think you always feel here that you want to get ahead of the rate. We were five short in power play, although one wicket in hand.
“You always feel like games at Emirates Old Trafford, especially on new surfaces, you want to get ahead of the game and try and hold on from there. It's something we've done traditionally, really well in the past, but they bowled well in the power play.
“We didn't quite get ahead of it.
“So, a tough pill to swallow again, not to get over the line. I think that's four games now to come down to the last ball. But the guys are learning and we hopefully start to put together some games.
“The pitch was quite variable in what came out of the surface. It's a hybrid that's been used and been uncovered for three or four days now.
“It's been warm and that just causes the ball to come out of the surface differently. You saw the left arm wrist spinner caused quite a lot of problems when he bowled four for 15.
“But, it was a really good game of cricket. The 4,000 or 5,000 people that we had today were entertained.
“We do need results to go our way now, but we are still in with a chance. We need to make sure the next two games are wins. Hopefully results go our way and we get the best place third.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Luke Adams & Dan Adams