Liam Livingstone played a starring role for Lancashire on Saturday afternoon, taking them through to the T20 Blast semi-finals.
Liam Livingstone powers Lancashire to T20 Blast Finals Day
The third quarter-final of the 2025 T20 Blast saw Lancashire and Kent face off at Old Trafford. The visitors chose to bat first after winning the toss but were rocked first ball as Luke Wood got rid of Tawanda Muyeye. Kent's innings rather meandered along, with several players getting off to starts but no one making it big.
Joe Denly top-scored with 28, and Zak Crawley (27), Joey Evison (27) and Grant Stewart (25) all chipped in to help their side post 153. Wood finished with 3-29 to his name.
Any thought of the run-chase being easy were quickly dispelled as Lancashire lost Phil Salt and Luke Wells inside two overs, bringing Liam Livingstone to the crease at 5-2. That soon became 31-3 as skipper Keaton Jennings was removed by Fred Klaassen.
Australian Ashton Turner contributed 22 to a 53-run stand with Livingstone to get Lancashire back on track. In the eight and ninth overs of the chase, Livingstone hit Denly for one six, and Matt Parkinson for three in an over. The last of those, his sixth of the innings, brought up his half-century off 25 balls.
After Turner's dismissal, Livingstone played more sedately, but ensured the required rate did not balloon. Michael Jones gave him able support with 28 off 17, before Jones and Tom Hartley were dismissed in the same over by Parkinson.
3rd Quarter Final, Lancashire vs Kent
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- Ball by ball Over
With the equation down to 33 from five overs, Livingstone hit Parkinson for six for the fourth time on the day before Jack Blatherwick struck one of his own. That over effectively ended the game, and Livingstone sealed the deal in the 19th over with a boundary off Nathan Gilchrist. He was unbeaten on 85 off 45 balls, and earlier had played a key role with the ball – taking 2-21 in four overs, with the wickets of Kent skipper Sam Billings and Evison.
This knock follows a productive performance in the Hundred for Livingstone, where he finished as Birmingham Phoenix's top run-scorer with 241 runs, averaging just over 40 and striking in excess of 155. The all-rounder has not played for England since the 2025 Champions Trophy, that ended with Jos Buttler stepping down as white-ball captain. He was not selected for the ongoing home series against South Africa, and is not set to travel to Ireland later this month either.
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