Falcons defeated at Emirates Old Trafford

A blistering 83 off 36 balls by England’s Jos Buttler clinched a precious two points for Lancashire Lightning as they improved their chances of securing a place in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals with a 27 run win against Derbyshire Falcons.

Buttler hit six sixes in his knock as he and England teammate Liam Livingstone constructed a devastating second wicket partnership of 101 runs off just 41 balls with the hosts reaching an intimidating 177 for four off 15 overs in a game delayed by 80 minutes due to rain.

In reply Falcons reached 150 for seven with 45 from Harry Came the only real highlight on a chastening night for the visitors who drop to seventh.

Lightning began their innings relatively conservatively scoring 23 off their first three overs before Phil Salt fell in the fifth, caught at point by Zak Chappell off Mattie McKiernan for 16.

With Livingstone joining Buttler at the crease, the fireworks began with the T20 specialists targeting Chappell, whose second over went for 20 runs and included a towering six from the skipper that landed on the roof of Emirates Old Trafford’s newly constructed hotel.

Livingstone repeated the trick in the eighth over, this time depositing the ball on the roof of the already built Hilton hotel, before Buttler took over hitting the unfortunate Alex Thomson for three consecutive sixes in the ninth over.

By the time Buttler was out, caught by Leus Du Plooy off Zaman Khan, he had become only the ninth player to hit 10,000 T20 runs, and the Falcons were left ruing their decision to insert the home side.

Cameos from Luke Wells and Daryl Mitchell added to the six count and with Livingstone finishing unbeaten on 47, Lightning were just one short of their record number of maximums in an innings with 12.

Faced with a daunting task, Falcons began brightly with opener Harry Came doing his best to find the boundaries but he soon lost Luis Reece and Haider Ali for company as the accurate seamers of Tom Bailey bore fruit.

When the talismanic Wayne Madsen found Luke Wood on the boundary off Mitchell for just 16 with the score 52 for three it felt like a hard task had become virtually impossible.

Wells accounted for skipper Du Plooy for 12 with a smart caught and bowled before Came departed stumped off Tom Hartley for a well-made 45.

A stunning catch from Rob Jones in the deep off McKiernan gave Wells a second wicket and with 38 runs required off the last over the game was up for the Falcons as Lightning went second in the North Group, requiring just one win from their final two games to qualify.

Brooke Guest, Derbyshire Falcons, said: “Some of the ball striking from Jos (Buttler) tonight was phenomenal and obviously we were not good enough tonight with the ball to counter that.

“On that wicket they got more runs than they should have so it was disappointing but we got outplayed by two very good international players today.

“We have two more games now and if we win them both we give ourselves a good chance. It might not be enough but we can only control what we can control.”

Vitality Blast 2023: Be Bold, Be Derbyshire

The Vitality Blast North Group is hotting up and the Falcons finish the group stages with home games at The Incora County Ground against Leicestershire Foxes and Worcestershire Rapids.

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