Buttler joins 10k club as Lancashire close in on quarter-finals

A blistering 83 off 36 balls by England captain Jos Buttler clinched two precious points for Lancashire Lightning as they improved their chances of securing a place in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals with a 27-run win against Derbyshire Falcons.

Buttler hit six sixes in his knock as he and England team-mate Liam Livingstone constructed a devastating second-wicket partnership of 101 runs off just 41 balls, with Lancashire reaching an intimidating 177 for 4 off 15 overs in a game delayed by 80 minutes due to rain.

In reply, Falcons reached 150 for 7 with 45 from Harry Came the only real highlight on a chastening night for Derbyshire, who drop to seventh.

Lightning began their innings relatively conservatively, scoring 23 off their first three overs before Phil Salt fell in the fifth, caught at point by Zak Chappell off Mattie McKiernan for 16.

With Livingstone joining Buttler at the crease, the fireworks began with the white-ball specialists targeting Chappell, whose second over went for 20 runs and included a towering six from the skipper that landed on the roof of Emirates Old Trafford's newly-constructed hotel.

Livingstone repeated the trick in the eighth over, this time depositing the ball on the roof of the already-built Hilton hotel, before Buttler took over hitting the unfortunate Alex Thomson for three consecutive sixes in the ninth over.

By the time Buttler was out, caught by Leus du Plooy off Zaman Khan, he had become only the ninth player to hit 10,000 T20 runs, and Falcons were left ruing their decision to insert the home side.

Cameos from Luke Wells and Daryl Mitchell added to the six count and with Livingstone finishing unbeaten on 47, Lightning were just one short of their record number of maximums in an innings with 12.

"I really enjoyed that," Buttler said. "It was a lot of fun batting out there with Livi. He puts so much pressure on bowlers. Any time you can extend the partnership like we did tonight it's hard to control the scoring rate."

Faced with a daunting task, Falcons began brightly with opener Came doing his best to find the boundaries but he soon lost Luis Reece and Haider Ali for company as the accurate seamers of Tom Bailey bore fruit.

When the talismanic Wayne Madsen found Luke Wood on the boundary off Mitchell for just 16 with the score 52 for 3, it felt like a hard task had become virtually impossible.

Wells accounted for skipper du Plooy for 12 with a smart caught-and-bowled before Came departed stumped off Tom Hartley for a well-made 45.

A stunning catch from Rob Jones in the deep off McKiernan gave Wells a second wicket and with 38 runs required off the last over the game was up for Falcons as Lightning went second in the North Group, requiring just one win from their final two games to qualify.