Wins for Lancs, Essex & Northants in T20 Blast

David Willey marked his 50th game as Northamptonshire Steelbacks' T20 captain by guiding them to a sixth successive Vitality Blast victory as they overcame Worcestershire Rapids at Wantage Road.

The Steelbacks skipper claimed 2-28 with the ball and then top scored with 47 from 33 balls, sharing a decisive stand of 69 with Justin Broad to pass 5,000 T20 career runs in the process.

Elsewhere, Lancashire ended a three-game losing streak as Liam Livingstone brilliantly dismantled a target of 129 in a rain-reduced, 10-over clash with fellow strugglers Durham at Banks Homes Riverside.

In Chelmsford, Charlie Allison continued his fine form with a personal best 74 to help Essex to a fourth straight victory as they held on to beat Kent.

A second-wicket partnership of 62 from 48 balls between Gareth Roderick and Brett D'Oliveira anchored the Rapids' total of 154-5 from 18 overs after they were put in, with Sikandar Raza adding an unbeaten 36 from 24 balls.

But both batters fell to James Sales (3-34) in the space of three deliveries as D'Oliveira holed out to deep mid-wicket and Saif Zaib, scampering in from the fence, held his nerve to take a skier from Roderick.

The Steelbacks started slowly in pursuit, with the first two overs yielding only nine runs before Chris Lynn (37 from 18 balls) launched a merciless assault, with two of his four cleanly struck sixes in Tom Taylor's next over disappearing out of the ground.

Lynn set the tone for Northamptonshire to chase down a rain-adjusted target before Willey and Broad helped the home side to 162-4 for a six-wicket victory on the DLS method.

In a memorable night for Willey, he equalled Alex Wakely's Steelbacks record of 133 T20 appearances.

The result keeps Northamptonshire top of the Central and West Group with six wins from six, while Worcestershire sit fourth after suffering their third defeat.

Lancashire's quarter-final hopes were boosted by a seven-wicket win, their second victory in six games, at Chester-le-Street, while Durham's fourth defeat in six means they are joined on eight points by a Red Rose team who remain bottom of the North Group.

Livingstone's second successive Blast half-century - 85 not out off 31 balls with eight sixes - included four successive sixes off Kasey Aldridge's seam bowling in a sensational innings.

Durham's openers Graham Clark (49 not out) and Alex Lees (42) also impressed as the home side batted first and reached 128-2 from their 10 overs. England limited-overs quick Luke Wood returned 1-16 from two overs for Lightning, while Livingstone also struck.

After a near two-hour delay through to 20:25 BST, Lees pulled and muscled the contest's first two balls from the spin of Tom Hartley for four and took four boundaries in all off the opening over.

When Livingstone bowled an attacking Lees, Durham had 94 in the eighth over. But Clark brilliantly scooped Tom Aspinwall for a boundary as the hosts ended well, despite the opener just falling short of 50.

In reply, skipper Keaton Jennings (1) and Ben McDermott (0) fell cheaply either side of a productive second over in which Livingstone pulled Matthew Potts for six. Michael Jones scored 27 from 15 balls before Livingstone was joined by Joe Moores (six not out) as Lancashire reached 130-3 to win with five balls remaining.

On the back of scores of 44 and 81 in his past two matches - both defeats against Yorkshire and Glamorgan - Livingstone went on to break the record for most sixes by a Lancashire batter in T20 history (163), previously held by his coach Steven Croft.

Essex survived a late comeback from Kent as Allison battered his third half-century on the bounce, with Jordan Cox firing 40 on his first Essex appearance of the summer – after IPL and England Lions duties - as the home side won by three runs.

Charlie Bennett's early wickets meant that Kent never settled in their chase of 188 despite Sam Billings' 62, and some late hitting to make the scores closer.

The Eagles sit clear in second in the South Group, with Kent four points behind, heading into the Blast's two-and-a-half-week hiatus.

Having been put in, a tepid start for Essex was compounded by losing openers Michael Pepper and Paul Walter in the powerplay, but Cox's partnership with Allison improved their situation and they registered a par score of 187-6.

The Spitfires had a similarly slow start before Zak Crawley and Billings threatened to take the game away with a quickfire 37 stand but Zaman Akhtar and Matt Critchley struck in back-to-back overs to put Essex in control.

Billings picked up his 41st T20 half-century but things fizzled out for the visitors before Jake Lintott and Fred Klaassen threatened to make things nervy with a 34-run partnership for the last wicket as Kent finished on 184-9.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay.