[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Lancashire

New Road, Worcester

Lancs innings: Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat on a half-bright, half-cloudy solstice eve in Worcester. As the Edgbaston Test reached its tortured conclusion, players and fans alike could have been forgiven for having their minds elsewhere, and that's perhaps what led Phil Salt, after hitting a second-ball maximum, to sky a leading edge to cover for 6 and gift his wicket to Dillon Pennington. A similarly cavalier attempt at a reverse sweep to a straight ball caused Luke Wells to perish LBW to Mitchell Santner to leave the Red Rose 7-2, and it became not just the magical three wickets but four in the powerplay when Pat Brown had Dane Vilas caught at midwicket and Daryl Mitchell (no, the other one) caught behind off a spicy short-pitched delivery next ball. 42-4 was the powerplay total, and if Jos Buttler looked a little shellshocked at the carnage, it didn't prevent the England man leading the subsequent recovery. Obliged, alongside Rob Jones, to play a more circumspect innings than usual - his half-century came off a comparatively sedate 40 balls - Buttler nevertheless stuck to the crease with his partner for over ten overs, supplying a fifth-wicket stand of 98 before Jones reverse-swept Santner to cover for 42. Buttler was the next to go for 74 in the penultimate over, holing out off Josh Tongue, and the bizarrely late arrival of Liam Livingstone at the crease (with just ten balls remaining) yielded two back-to-back sixes, a no ball, and then his wicket at the fourth attempt for Tongue, caught at deep cover. The final over went for a few runs, despite Brown seeing off Luke Wood, but 164-8 was the sub-par total for the visitors after twenty.

Worcs innings: A rare early demise for Brett D'Oliveira, caught for 10 in the powerplay, but the kind of collapse that restricted Lancashire's innings just didn't come. Instead there were runs aplenty for Santner, who was unlucky to feather behind on a 27-ball 49, and still more for young Jack Haynes as he judiciously clobbered his way beyond a 38-ball half-century to 63 before perishing at deep backward square to Jack Blatherwick. But with wickets in hand and the back of the chase well broken - 150 was up within sixteen overs - the last 15 runs were no great obstacle to Adam Hose and Kashif Ali, who delivered a straightforward victory in a crucial encounter.

Worcestershire WIN by seven wickets

The Verdict: A turnaround of form, or simply the fickle winds of fortune blowing a different way? The frustration of T20 as a format is that margins are so fine, and the same tactics that work one day can fall apart the next, though they're executed no less diligently. All in all, I'm not convinced that Worcestershire's great Achilles heel - our death bowling - has changed that much from the run of four defeats, but we're back to our best in the powerplay and (crucially) the middle overs of spin; the shield with which we protect Pat Brown at the business end. No one in their right mind would have wished a season-ending injury on Michael Bracewell, and I wish him all the best in his recovery, but the return of Usama Mir is what we were crying out for a week or two ago, and however unhappy the circumstances of that second coming, it looks to be making all the difference to our attack again. The race is too close to call, but victory over Notts on Thursday would surely be one foot in the quarter-finals.