LIAM Livingstone found his batting form at the perfect moment to keep Lancashire in contention in the Royal London Cup.

The Red Rose skipper smashed seven sixes in racing to 90 off just 56 balls as they defeated Leicestershire by nine wickets on a good pitch at Oakham School.

Lancashire went into the match needing to win each of their final three group games – the next is on Sunday against Derbyshire at Derby – to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stages alive.

And it was a supremely comfortable victory over struggling Leicestershire as fine bowling from young leg-spinner Matt Parkinson, who picked up 4-31 from his 10 overs, following early breakthroughs by seamers Joe Mennie and Graham Onions, restricted the Foxes to a 172 all out total that was desperately below par.

While Livingstone struck 90, Hassem Hameed hit a half-century in an unbroken partnership of 133 as the visitors cruised to victory in just 25.5 overs.

Barrow CC product Livingstone was pleased with the win, and said: “The toss was a massive, massive feature of the game, because it was quite misty early on, but we bowled really well up front.

“Then Parky came on and did his thing, and Pazza (Stephen Parry) bowled really well too. All in all, it was a great bowling performance.

“It was nice to finish it off quickly with the bat, and we’ll take the confidence into Sunday at Derby. If we play there like we did today we’ll be all right.”

Bowling first after winning the toss proved a wise decision by Livingstone on a cloudy morning in Rutland, the smallest county in England.

There was something in the pitch for the seamers, as Mennie produced an almost unplayable delivery to Cameron Delport which pitched on leg stump and moved away to hit off.

Paul Horton, a former Lancashire captain, did not last much longer, Onions finding the outside edge and Livingstone himself taking the catch at second slip.

Ned Eckersley and Mark Cosgrove began to rebuild the innings, but their third-wicket partnership had reached only 42 when Eckersley attempted to reverse sweep the left-arm spin of Parry, and top-edged high to Alex Davies coming in off the boundary at backward point.

Colin Ackermann struggled from the start against the leg-spin of Parkinson and was quickly bowled by a googly he completely failed to pick, but it was hard to understand what was going through Neil Dexter’s mind when, before getting off the mark, the experienced all-rounder tried to loft Parkinson over mid-off and failed to clear Josh Bohannon.

Cosgrove was Leicestershire’s only real hope of positing a competitive score, but the Australian had only just passed 50 when he played and missed at Parkinson, dragged his rear foot and Dane Vilas completed a smart stumping.

Tom Wells lofted Parkinson high to Parry at long-on, Javid steered Parry tamely to Livingstone at wide extra cover, and Dieter Klein was palpably leg before to Graham Onions as the Foxes failed to even bat out their 50 overs.

Davies and Hameed gave Lancashire a solid start to their reply, and though Davies top-edged a pull at Klein to be caught behind, Livingstone ensured the chase would end very quickly.