Arron Lilley, Mark Cosgrove lead Leicestershire to win over Nottinghamshire

Arron Lilley helped Leicestershire Foxes pick up their first Vitality Blast win of the season in a rain-reduced match against Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge.

Lilley scored 66 from only 30 balls, hitting 10 fours and two sixes, as his side reached 125 for 3 after the contest had been reduced to 11 overs per side. The 28-year old reached his first T20 half-century from only 22 balls and added 86 runs with Mark Cosgrove, who scored an unbeaten 37, from only seven overs.

Notts lost Alex Hales and Ben Duckett with only 20 runs on the board and could only muster 104 for 6, with Tom Moores making an unbeaten 44, leaving the Foxes as victors by 21 runs.

Gavin Griffiths collected 2 for 22 for the visitors, the best return of the day.

When play did eventually begin, after a delay of two hours and 15 minutes, Harry Swindells was pinned lbw by Luke Wood for a first-ball duck.

Lilley hit Imad Wasim for three consecutive boundaries in the second over and Cosgrove also unleashed three more in the next, bowled by Harry Gurney.

Building on their early momentum, the Foxes' duo raced to a 50-run partnership from only 25 balls, reached when Cosgrove hit Luke Fletcher over square leg for the first six of the match.

The seventh over, bowled by Jake Ball, went for 19, with Lilley finding the ropes on four separate occasions.

Wasim, on his home debut, forced the eventual mistake from Lilley, with wicketkeeper Moores taking the swirling catch.

Colin Ackermann, the visiting captain, hit 18 from 12 balls, supporting Cosgrove in a stand of 33 from 20 balls.

Duckett and Hales departed within four balls of each other at the start of the reply and wickets continued to tumble as the desperate search for runs became more and more frantic.

Joe Clarke was caught behind and Dan Christian, who had won the toss and opted to bowl first, fell to a catch in the deep by Dieter Klein.

The final over began with Notts still requiring 40. Moores threw the bat in style and finished with five sixes in his 19-ball knock but the local bragging rights were already on their way back to Leicester.

Alex Hales, who scored 10 for Notts, said reducing the match to 11 overs per side was "a bit of a a leveller".

"But with the ball-strikers and death-bowlers we have, we probably should be winning that game, if we are honest," Hales added. "Fair play to Leicestershire. Arron Lilley played an outstanding knock and we didn't quite execute as well as we would have liked with the ball. It's one of those, when you don't quite get it right, 12 runs an over is going to be a big ask."

Meanwhile, in the South Group, Gloucestershire's rotten run of luck with bad weather, particularly in Essex, continued when they suffered their third successive Vitality Blast washout at the Eagles' Chelmsford ground. Gloucestershire haven't bowled a ball in their last three trips to Essex in T20 cricket, after similarly rain-affected matches in 2017 and 2018.

Saturday night's fixture was added to that list at 8pm as the umpires called the game off, without a toss, after persistent rain. Essex and Gloucestershire remain on just one win from their opening four and three fixtures respectively. Both sides are next in action on Thursday evening, with Gloucestershire travelling to win-less Glamorgan and Essex hosting Hampshire.