Lancashire 177 for 4 (Buttler 83, Livingstone 47) beat Derbyshire 150 for 7 (Came 45) by 27 runs

Lightning began their innings relatively conservatively, scoring 23 off their first three overs before Phil Salt fell in the fifth, caught at point by Zak Chappell off Mattie McKiernan for 16.

With Livingstone joining Buttler at the crease, the fireworks began with the white-ball specialists targeting Chappell, whose second over went for 20 runs and included a towering six from the skipper that landed on the roof of Emirates Old Trafford’s newly-constructed hotel.

Livingstone repeated the trick in the eighth over, this time depositing the ball on the roof of the already-built Hilton hotel, before Buttler took over hitting the unfortunate Alex Thomson for three consecutive sixes in the ninth over.

Cameos from Luke Wells and Daryl Mitchell added to the six count and with Livingstone finishing unbeaten on 47, Lightning were just one short of their record number of maximums in an innings with 12.

“I really enjoyed that,” Buttler said. “It was a lot of fun batting out there with Livi. He puts so much pressure on bowlers. Any time you can extend the partnership like we did tonight it’s hard to control the scoring rate.”

Faced with a daunting task, Falcons began brightly with opener Came doing his best to find the boundaries but he soon lost Luis Reece and Haider Ali for company as the accurate seamers of Tom Bailey bore fruit.

When the talismanic Wayne Madsen found Luke Wood on the boundary off Mitchell for just 16 with the score 52 for 3, it felt like a hard task had become virtually impossible.

Wells accounted for skipper du Plooy for 12 with a smart caught-and-bowled before Came departed stumped off Tom Hartley for a well-made 45.

A stunning catch from Rob Jones in the deep off McKiernan gave Wells a second wicket and with 38 runs required off the last over the game was up for Falcons as Lightning went second in the North Group, requiring just one win from their final two games to qualify.