Three days after the thumping of Middlesex, Lancashire travelled to Worcester for the Semi final. With Parkinson still unavailable, the visitors fielded an unchanged side up against the hosts who have had some key individual performers with both bat and ball this campaign.
Another toss by Lancashire but opting to bowl on a seaming pitch proved fruitless in the opening exchanges. It wasn't until the 27th over with the score on 111-0 that Livingstone's (1-22) part time leg spin again rewarded the red rose. but with 10 overs to go Worcs had worked their way to 181-1 and 7 bowlers had been used by Lancashire. For the closing stages Mennie (1-59) returned and accounted for Mitchell (92) to halt the tempo. Anderson (4-49) plugged away from the other end and Worc stuttered to 250-6 off their allocation.
Needing 5 runs an over to win, Lancashire struggled to push the ball beyond the inner circle. Jennings (19) was brilliantly caught at height behind the stumps after the loss of Davies (4) and his stay of only 2 balls. Rob Jones initially only mustered 6 runs off his first 33 balls but thanks to the fluency of Croft at the other end the pair found their feet. Jones hit 50 off 69 balls followed by Croft off just 45 balls. As uneven bounce came into play, the importance of this partnership was illustrated perfectly by a hook from Jones which flew over the keepers head for 6, bringing up an all time partnership record for any wicket v Worcs of 145*. Croft brought up his century in 71 balls (20x4) having scored 80 of the runs exclusively in boundaries.
Jones (64) was beaten for pace,with only 53 runs still needed, the partnership ended at 167 and Livingstone came in to a supportive role allowing Croft to take the majority of the strike. When he was trapped on the crease for a wonderful 122 (89 ball, 25x4) the result was almost a certainty. With no further alarms, Lancashire chased down the target with 10 overs & 6 wickets to spare.
Lancashire BT Worcestershire by 6 wickets MOTM Croft (122)