Lancashire 273 for 6 (Jennings 67, Balderson 56*) beat Gloucestershire 270 for 6 (Bancroft 98, J Taylor 75) by four wickets
Lancashire gave their chances of reaching the knockout stages of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup a significant boost when they defeated Gloucestershire by four wickets at Emirates Old Trafford.
Having restricted the visitors to 270, in which Cameron Bancroft made 98, the home side were in trouble on 183 for 6 against a predominantly youthful attack.
But skipper George Balderson and Arav Shetty put on an unbroken 90 off 62 balls to clinch a vital win with 11 balls to spare. Balderson finished 56 not out Shetty was unbeaten on 36
Bancroft's innings early in the day was all the more important to Gloucestershire because Miles Hammond was injured and James Bracey had been bowled for a single by Tom Aspinwall when he inside-edged the seventh ball of the game into his middle stump.
The remaining opener then put on 52 with Ollie Price and 43 with Joe Eckland before he was joined by his skipper Jack Taylor in what became the major partnership of the innings. The fourth-wicket pair put on 116 in 20.2 overs before both were dismissed by successive deliveries with the score on 212.
Having made 75 off 69 balls with eleven fours and a six, Taylor was caught one-handed on the deep square leg boundary by Marcus Harris off Charlie Barnard. Crucially for the momentum of Gloucestershire's innings, Bancroft was dismissed two short of his seventh List A hundred when was caught down the leg side by Matty Hurst off Shetty.
Joe Phillips and Tommy Boorman put on 57 for the sixth wicket before Boorman was caught by a Rocky Flintoff-Harry Singh relay off Balderson for 28 in the final over. Barnard and Balderson were the most successful Lancashire bowlers with 2 for 59 and 2 for 54 respectively.
Lancashire began their pursuit of 271 in impressive fashion. Hurst put on 92 with Keaton Jennings before being bowled by Aman Rao for 48 and Josh Bohannon made a 47 off 42 balls before he chipped a return catch to Ed Middleton, whom he had hit for three sixes.
That breakthrough began a superb spell for Gloucestershire, who took five wickets for 31 runs in 64 balls to reduce Lancashire to 183 for 6. Included in the collapse was Jennings, who was caught at cover off Price for 67, and Harris, who chipped Will Williams to midwicket when he had made 12.
With 79 needed off the last ten overs, Balderson and Shetty mounted a fightback but 31 were still needed off the last four overs. Undaunted, Balderson lifted Williams for two straight sixes in the 48th over and the skipper completed his fifty off 34 balls just before victory he secured victory with his fourth six of a memorable innings.
