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Birmingham ousted as Lancs take low-scoring tussle
- Updated: July 29, 2016
Lancashire 124 for 5 (Moores 39*, Clark 31*) beat Birmingham 94 for 8 (Mahmood 3-12, LIlley 2-21) by 30 runs Scorecard
Precisely eleven months since they danced and sang on the Edgbaston outfield after winning last year’s NatWest T20 Blast, Lancashire’s cricketers went into their final group match with coach Ashley Giles voicing the hope they could “upset the party” of the Birmingham Bears, his former side, who needed a win to be certain of reaching the last eight.
By the end of a fine and rather fascinating match, Giles could argue that he had achieved his modest objective with a 30-run victory, albeit that both eliminated teams were left dancing round their handbags in the kitchen while “Agadoo” played on a continuous loop.
Lancashire had needed either a washout or a tie at Chester-le-Street if they were to qualify and the joy which inspired their victory song was surely tinged with the knowledge that they had squandered their short-form opportunities earlier in the season.
For their part, having restricted Lancashire to 59 for 5 in the 14th over Birmingham allowed their hosts to amass 124 for 5 and the Bears then failed by a distance to chase down that score on a slow pitch
Both these teams could echo the impassioned regret of Billy Bigelow in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel: they had both let their golden chances pass them by.
None of which should detract from the enjoyment eventually derived by most of the 10,263 spectators, Lancashire second-biggest T20 crowd, from this slow-burner of a short-form game in which the home batsmen had struggled painfully in the opening overs against an accurate …
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