T20 Blast: Laurie Evans helps Surrey to quarter-final win over Lancashire

Laurie Evans has scored 563 runs in this season's T20 Blast - 14 more than opening partner Will Jacks

Surrey bounced back from a run of three successive defeats at the end of the T20 Blast group stage to beat Lancashire Lightning by 13 runs and reach Finals Day for the eighth time.

In the first T20 meeting between the two sides for 18 years, the visitors posted a total of 187-5 at Old Trafford, built on a 72-run partnership between Laurie Evans and Jason Roy.

Evans overtook opening partner Will Jacks as Surrey's leading run scorer with 70 off 41 balls and Roy made 50 off 34 in only his second innings in this year's competition after injury.

Lightning were well placed at 97-1 in the 11th over of their chase, but Jos Buttler went for 42 and when Chris Jordan yorked Steven Croft for 55 at the start of the penultimate over, there was too much for them to do and they finished on 174-6.

Surrey will now play Somerset, who beat Notts Outlaws, in one of the semi-finals at Edgbaston on 15 July.

It was Lancashire's first home defeat in the domestic game's shortest format since September 2020 and means they miss out on a chance to go one better than last year when they lost to Hampshire Hawks in the final.

Having won five of their last seven T20 games, losing only one, Lancashire named an unchanged XI, but Jordan won the toss and chose to bat first as Surrey drafted in spinner Dan Moriarty for his first Blast game of the season.

The ramp shot was key to Evans' innings, with two sixes in three balls off Tom Bailey before Jacks tried to do the same and was caught by Luke Wells for eight.

Evans reached his 50 off only 28 balls and Lancashire were mightily relieved when he was bowled by skipper Liam Livingstone's second ball of the game.

Roy's dismissal, slicing a catch to Croft off Luke Wood, left Surrey 140-3 after 15 overs, but Jamie Overton (21 off 12) and Jordan (12 not out) eked out vital runs to push the total beyond 180.

Buttler and Phil Salt launched Lancashire's chase with a flurry of shots and Croft helped keep the healthy tempo going after Salt was caught at mid-off for 13 in the fourth over, bowled by Sean Abbott.

But having hit the first two balls of a Sunil Narine over for six over long-on, Buttler fell with the score on 97 as Moriarty justified his selection with the most important wicket of all.

The dangerous Livingstone managed only seven and following Croft's dismissal, Lancashire needed 19 from the final over and could only score five as Surrey joined Essex, Hampshire and Somerset in the final four.

Lancashire all-rounder Steven Croft:

"We came up against a really good team, and they were slightly better in every facet of the game. They batted well up top and got off to a solid start. We clawed it back really well, although we let 10 runs or so slip in the field.

"Similarly with the bat, there were little periods in the game where we could have squeezed a few more runs here and there.

"We felt if we could restrict them to around 180, that would be good. It seemed a decent pitch. They bowled really well on it, and even halfway through we were still in with a chance. We had plenty of wickets in the shed to hopefully accelerate, but they out did us with the ball."

Surrey and England opener Jason Roy:

"It's absolutely amazing. Off the back of losing a few games and playing some pretty poor cricket, to come here in an away fixture, especially this ground and this crowd, and put together a performance like that was outstanding.

"We haven't quite got it right in a few of the games leading into this, and we had a good, honest conversation - batters and bowlers.

"We made a few mistakes in the field and need to brush up on that. But this is as close as we've come to a perfect performance."