Parkinson leads Lancashire recovery from brutal night

If Lancashire reach their first T20 Finals Day since they won the trophy in 2015, the scene in Old Trafford's home dressing room after the defeat to Durham less than a fortnight ago may enter the county's mythology along with Jack Simmons' gargantuan appetite and Ciss Parkin singing "Lily of Laguna" as he walked back to his mark. Having failed to score six off the last over with four wickets in hand, the inquest into the loss was brutal and Matt Parkinson admits harsh words were spoken.

Yet Parkinson himself was one of the least culpable players that night. His figures of 1 for 29 off three overs were not dreadful and he was out first ball only when Lancashire needed five runs off two deliveries. And when he had to bowl at his best two evenings later, Parkinson responded by taking 2 for 31 to help engineer Yorkshire's decline from 130 for 1 after 11.5 overs to 181 for 9 after 20. That fightback set up Lancashire's six-wicket win, the first of three victories in four days which saw them clinch their quarter-final tie against Kent at Canterbury on Thursday.

As figures from the cricket analytics company, CricViz, reveal, Lancashire have bowled nearly half their overs with spin - their figure of 49% is the highest in the tournament - and Parkinson has been to the fore.

"I think Matt bowled fantastically well at Headingley," said Mark Chilton, Lancashire's assistant coach. "Because he'd done so well last year there was a lot of expectation around him but he hadn't had the returns we were expecting. Then he bowled brilliantly at Headingley and backed that up with an exceptional performance against Birmingham the next night when he took three wickets. It was a helpful pitch but he had real energy about his bowling. We sometimes forget that he's only 21 and a little bit of confidence can go a long way."

Both figures and film back up Chilton's assessment. In Lancashire's last five group games Parkinson's legspin took 11 wickets for 118 runs in 18 overs and he has taken a total of 20 in this year's Vitality Blast. And those wishing to assess the quality of Parkinson's dismissals should go on social media and check out the Warnesque leg-spinner which bowled Birmingham's New Zealand allrounder, Colin de Grandhomme. It helps to show why Lancashire's stand-in skipper, Dane Vilas, almost always calls on Parkinson to bowl his four overs in T20 games.

"Dane trusts me, backs me and sees me as the guy who can take wickets," said Parkinson. "I do get a lot of responsibility and I try to thrive on that. Things have gone quite well for me in the T20 Competition this year."

Parkinson is also a regular pick in Lancashire's red-ball side and he traces his improvement from what had already been a promising first couple of seasons to the winter he spent being coached by the former Australian leg-spinner, Stuart MacGill.

"I did some tweaks with Stuart to give me more energy and momentum towards the target and I'm now probably using my front arm a bit more," he said "The six months with him were fantastic because they gave me confidence I could take with me into this season. They really helped me to understand my game more and to deal with the off days. I'm not saying it was shit or bust for me last year but this year I'm a lot more consistent and I've grown as a bowler. I understand my own bowling better."

They are impressive words from a cricketer who is only 21-years-old and for whom the quarter-final against a powerful Kent batting line-up at the St Lawrence Ground will be his maiden knockout match for Lancashire. And should Lancashire prevail, Parkinson will attend his first-ever T20 Finals Day, an experience he would share with three or four other debutants in the squad.

"We've had some changes and we have some people who've played a similar number of games to me, but we also have Jimmy Faulkner, who's played in a World Cup Final, and we have "Bunny" Onions, who's an Ashes winner and is around for most of the T20 games," said Parkinson. "Those guys can give you information and they really help you. They have so much experience from which young cricketers in general can learn."

But before the T20 quarter-final, Lancashire have a day-night game against Surrey at the The Oval to play. Indeed, they may be playing pick-ball Division One cricket against the title favourites deep into Tuesday evening, something like 21 hours before the match against Kent begins.

"It's not ideal but we'll be fine," said Parkinson. "We'll get a good night's sleep after the day-night game and we'll be ready to go on Thursday evening."