Lancashire defeat toothless Sharks to seal finals day spot in Blast

Lancashire Lightning reached Vitality Blast finals day for the eighth time after defeating Sussex Sharks by 45 runs in a low-scoring quarter-final at Hove.

The 2015 champions will play in tomorrow’s second semi-final at Edgbaston and will fancy their chances if they encounter a pitch similar to the slow surface their bowlers relished here.

Sussex appeared to be favourites when Lancashire were restricted 140 for eight after being put in, but their attack – particularly spinners Matt Parkinson, Tom Hartley and Liam Livingstone – did such an outstanding job that Sussex were dismissed for 95, their lowest total in the competition since 2011, in 17.2 overs.

Only Luke Wright (36) offered much resistance but when he became Livingstone’s second victim in the 13th over – well caught by the diving Steven Croft at long-off for 36 – their last five wickets subsided for just 18 runs in 19 balls.

Leg-spinner Parkinson took three of them in four balls in the 15th over and Lancashire’s spinners finished with combined figures of eight for 50 from 9.2 overs.

Although Phil Salt hit the first ball of the reply for four, it was one of only four boundaries in the first half of Sussex’s innings. Salt fell to Saqib Mahmood’s first delivery and neither Delray Rawlins (6), Ravi Bopara (9) nor David Wiese, who hit the only six of the innings, couldn’t give Wright support.

Even the normally free-scoring Sussex captain found it difficult to time the ball but he hit four of only seven boundaries in the innings from 35 balls faced.

The runs scored for Lancashire by Blackpool’s Croft (41) and skipper Dane Vilas (40) were to prove crucial.

Wright employed six bowlers in the first nine overs and it was only when Croft and Vilas added 43 in 5.2 overs for the fourth wicket that Lancashire found any momentum.

Sussex restricted them to 34 from the power-play and removed Livingstone, who hit Ollie Robinson for two sixes before succumbing to Robinson’s yorker as well as Keaton Jennings (5), who drove George Garton’s slower ball to mid-on.

Alex Davies, Lancashire’s leading scorer in this year’s Blast with 284 runs, was unusually subdued, making 16 off 19 balls before falling in the tenth over to an excellent diving catch by Wiese, running in from the square leg boundary.

Croft hit three sixes in six balls off Delray Rawlins and Robinson only to succumb looking to hit Garton over deep square in the 15th over.

Lancashire then lost two wickets in the first over following a 30-minute rain break to Tymal Mills, while Vilas was deceived by Garton’s slower ball in the final over, having made 40 off 28 balls. Garton took his tally to 14 wickets, including 11 in his last three games, with 3 for 28.