T20 Blast round-up: Wins for Lancashire, Essex and Northamptonshire

Lancashire’s quarter-final hopes were boosted by a seven-wicket win, their second in six games, at Chester-le-Street, while Durham’s fourth defeat in six games meant they joined the Red Roses at the bottom of Group North on eight points.

Livingstone’s second consecutive blast half-century – 85 not out with eight sixes off 31 balls – included four consecutive sixes off Casey Aldridge’s seam bowling in a sensational innings.

Durham openers Graham Clarke (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 in two overs for the Lightning, with Livingstone also hitting.

After a delay of almost two hours until 20:25 BST, Lees pulled and muscled the first two balls of the contest off the spin of Tom Hartley and took four boundaries in the opening over.

When Livingstone bowled the aggressive Lees, Durham were 94 in the eighth over. But Clarke superbly scooped Tom Aspinwall for a boundary as the hosts finished well, although the opener fell just 50 short.

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 off 15 balls before Livingstone joined Joe Moores (six not out) as Lancashire reached 130-3 with five balls to spare.

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