Bears Blast Best: Lancashire Lightning

In 16 meetings in the Blast, the Bears and the Lightning have delivered some real thrillers and some brilliant cricket. Club journalist Brian Halford recalls the Bears' best against the Lightning with bat and ball...step forward Adam Hose, Recordo Gordon and Olly Hannon-Dalby.

Best Innings – 76

Adam Hose (Edgbaston, 2017)

Four days after joining the Bears from Somerset, Adam Hose introduced himself to the fans with a truly memorable display of power hitting.

The Bears were chasing an imposing total of 176, after Jos Buttler's 43-ball 80, and were wobbling at 17 for two when Hose joined Sam Hain at the crease. The pair rebuilt stylishly and the debutant batted with verve from his very first ball.

He smashed 76 from just 43 balls with seven fours and five sixes. One of the sixes landed in the top deck of the pavilion - a mighty hit that would have joined the very short list of blows to have cleared the old pavilion and landed in the Edgbaston Road.

After scoring 76 at a scoring rate of 176, Hose departed to a standing ovation, after which Grant Elliott's composed unbeaten 45 saw the Bears to a five-wicket victory with two balls to spare.

"I've seen a lot of cricket at Edgbaston and that's probably the best debut I've ever seen from a Warwickshire player," said Ian Bell.

Best Bowling – 4/20

Recordo Gordon (Old Trafford, 2015)

All eyes were on Black Caps superstar Brendon McCullum as he made his Bears debut, but it was local favourite Recordo Gordon who was the star of a thrilling one-run win.

On a typically slow Old Trafford pitch, McCullum made 18 as the Bears totalled 137 for eight thanks to Varun Chopra (40) and Will Porterfield (36). The only six of the innings was struck right at the end by number nine R.O.Gordon...how vital that was to prove!

"Flash" then got to work with the ball. The Bears had to take wickets and the Jamaica-born seamer soon had Karl Brown caught by wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose. Then, after the Lightning moved dangerously to 52 for two, he struck three further blows.

As Josh Poysden built pressure with a fine spell of 4-0-25-0, Jordon Clark, James Faulkner and Alex Davies all perished to futile flails at Flash. Liam Livingstone was run out off the final ball in pursuit of the run that would have tied the game and the Bears had a fantastic, Flash-powered victory to the delight of their big travelling support in the north-west.

Olly Hannon-Dalby (Edgbaston, 2018)

They say the Blast is a batsman's game but when the Bears thrashed the Lightning by seven wickets at Edgbaston in 2018 it was emphatically the bowlers that did it...led by OHD.

Lancashire arrived in Birmingham with a power-packed batting line-up, but were blown away by a Yorkshireman!

Batting first, the Lightning reached 22 without loss but then lost all ten wicket for 80 runs. OHD started the slide by taking down both openers - Alex Davies and Karl Brown. Aaron Thomason and Grant Elliott added two wicket apiece and spinners Jeetan Patel (4-1-15-1) and Josh Poysden (4-0-18-1) applied a tight squeeze before OHD returned to add the scalps of Dan Lamb and Matt Parkinson.