T20 Blast: Lancashire beat Kent in dramatic tied quarter-final

Lancashire's Arron Lilley celebrates after a dramatic finish to the T20 Blast quarter-final at Canterbury

Lancashire clinched the last T20 Blast Finals Day place by losing fewer wickets after the scores were tied in their quarter-final against Kent.

Requiring just six off the final over to win, Matt Coles had England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and Steven Croft caught off consecutive balls.

James Faulkner drove the final ball for two, with three runs needed to win.

Kent were earlier bowled out for 142 and Lancashire claimed victory having lost only six wickets at Canterbury.

Their reward is a semi-final draw at Edgbaston against Hampshire on 29 August, a side they beat at the same stage last year.

Northants will play holders Birmingham Bears in the other semi-final.

Having been put in to bat, Kent's innings got off to a poor start as Kyle Jarvis struck twice in two balls having Daniel Bell-Drummond caught cheaply at extra cover before Buttler dived to hold onto an edge from Joe Denly.

Aaron Lilley produced a sensational jumping one-handed stop on the boundary, before throwing the ball to Karl Brown as he went over the rope, to dismiss the dangerous Darren Stevens off Stephen Parry.

After the hosts collapsed to 86-7, James Tredwell (31 not out) and Fabian Cowdrey (27) shared a stand of 52 including 16 off a Faulkner over, before the Australian bowled Mitchell Claydon and Ivan Thomas off the final two balls of the innings.

Lancashire's promotion of Alex Davies to the top of their order failed as Coles (3-22) trapped him lbw to give Kent the early wicket they required.

Brown and Liam Livingstone both fell cheaply to bring Buttler to the crease and the 24-year-old signalled his intent by launching his fourth ball over long-on for six, before smashing 53 off 37 balls, which included five fours and three sixes.

Opener Ashwell Prince's (62) steady half-century anchored the innings before the fall of his wicket in the penultimate over started 11 balls of mayhem.

However, Faulkner stayed calm and middled the final ball of the innings to see Lancashire home.

Kent captain Sam Northeast:

"It was just one of those things and we fell on the unlucky side of it.

"We were a little bit short and James Tredwell played well just to get us up there.

"Our death bowling has been brilliant all year, but we just didn't get enough runs."

Lancashire captain Steven Croft:

"We've been in that situation a few times, but today just scraped through.

"Hats off to them (Ashwell Prince and Jos Buttler) they played two gems of innings.

"The pitch was a bit tricky but those two set the game up brilliantly for us."

James Tredwell scored an unbeaten 31 as Kent struggled to 142 batting first

Ashwell Prince's 62 looked to be seeing Lancashire through to a comfortable victory

But a late Kent fightback meant James Faulkner had to score three off the last ball for Lancashire to win

Faulkner and Arron Lilley scrambled two runs to tie the scores and send Lancashire through after they lost fewer wickets