Lancashire won the NatWest T20 blast over Northamptonshire

Lancashire won the NatWest T20 blast over Northamptonshire

After five hard-fought attempts Lancashire has finally clinched the NatWest T20 finals. Lanchaire had made to five T20 finals day but finished the second best. Last year they disappointedly lost off the final ball. But, this time the Red Ross county put those frustrating memories behind them on Saturday night, beating Northamptonshire by a margin that sounds rather more comfortable than it was.  

Lancashire scored 166 for 7 while Northamptonshire fell short of 13 runs. It was the last over before the Lancashire captain, Steven Croft, who has 118 consecutive T20 matches for the county since 2006, could begin to turn around the fortune as he lifted the trophy finally. ‘I think it was 1999 we last won a one-day competition, so it’ has been a long time coming, but it was a great squad effort’ a relaxed Croft told the Guardian.

“We lost some key players at the end of last season, but we had our match-winners and were always confident we could knock sides over,” Croft added. Lancashire batting first did not get a good start as Northamptonshire opening bowlers Rory Kleinveldt and David Willey did not take four quick wickets and put their opponents firmly on the back foot from the start.

However, despite a slow start Lancashire’s openers Ashwell Prince and Alex Davies went on to attack the bowlers, at the end of the first powerplay Lancashire had 52 on the board. Davies was looking more prolific than Prince. A 47 off 26 run innings from Davies erected the foundation of Lancashire.

 

Pakistan international Shahid Afridi  proved harder to get away. He scalped the wicket of Karl Brown stumped after missing a ball down the leg side.

However, that did not bother Lancashire to reach 80 for 2 in the middle of their innings. England national team player Joss Buttler  was elevated sensing the momentum loss.

The England wicketkeeper hit White for the longest straight six of the day, and with Prince playing slow 38 run innings a rate of nine runs per over was maintained.

Northants were looking for a wicket turned back to Willey and he obliged, with Buttler caught at deep point by Cobb before Prince guided a slow bouncer to backward point.

In the next over, Afridi  picked up two more wickets, James Faulkner slapping him high to Richard Levi at the cover while Liam Livingstone bowled by googly.  

Much now depended on the Northants opening batsmen. Levi, who hit an unbeaten 63 in the semi-final win over Birmingham, and Willey took the score to 32 in the fourth over, but Levi then cracked James Faulkner straight to mid-off, and in his following over the Australian had Willey caught off an attempted pull.

Ben Duckett swung once too often at Stephen Parry’s left-arm spin, but Cobb and Afridi kept Northants, arguably the most unfashionable of the first class counties, and currently the most financially challenged, in the running to win the competition for the second time in three years.

Afridi holed out off the debutant Gavin Griffiths, but Cobb, who took four wickets for Leicestershire when the county won the competition in 2011, continued to threaten. However, towards the end of the innings boundaries eluded him, and gradually the equation became impossible. It had been a brave effort and a grand final after the two hugely disappointing matches that preceded it.

“It will always be tougher for smaller countries to compete, and it would have been nice to win it and prove a point, but they were the better team,” said the Northamptonshire captain, Alex Wakely.

Here is how they celebrated