Lancashire batsman Karl Brown said the bowlers were key to victory despite starring with the bat as his side edged out Durham Jets with the final ball to go top of their T20 group.
Brown scored the bulk of Lancashire’s runs, smashing 61 off 51 balls as his side posted what appeared a below par total of 133.
Durham fell agonisingly two runs short of victory by only managing a two off the final ball, where a boundary would have secured the win.
Brown was quick to credit the bowling unit with the victory, in particular Junaid Khan who claimed 3-21 from his four overs.
“The bowling performance was second to none,” Brown told the club website.
“That’s as good as we’ve been with the ball – it was unbelievable from the bowlers.
“Junaid was awesome. We know what we are going to get from him.
“I think a lot of credit has to go to Stephen Parry – he bowled four overs for 16 and really dragged us back into the game.”
The victory is Lancashire’s third T20 Blast victory in a row having lost the opening game of the tournament to Nottinghamshire.
They now sit top of the North Group after four games but have played as many as two matches more than other teams in the group.
The defeat was Durham’s first of the competition despite being well placed to chase down the target at 98-3 after 14.3 overs.
The hosts left themselves needing 15 runs from Kabir Ali’s final over, but the former England seamer restricted them to 13 to secure victory.
Brown, 26, followed up his career-best 67 in the last T20 game to add the late innings acceleration that his side desperately craved – including four sixes in seven balls.
Brown says he got to the point in his innings where he needed to pick up the pace and his 23 off the 17th over was the result of that increase in tempo.
“To be honest it got to a stage where I needed to do something like that because early doors in my innings I couldn’t get it off the square,” Brown said.
“I thought I had to hit a couple out the park to get us to a competitive total.
“I’m just really happy that I did it in the end.”
Lancashire take on the newly-rebranded Birmingham Bears at Old Trafford tonight hoping to consolidate their position at the top of the table and continue their bid for their first finals day appearance since 2011.
Main image courtesy of Gunn And Moore Cricket via YouTube, with thanks.
