England's Buttler has fractured thumb, say Lancashire

LONDON (Reuters) - Lancashire's England ODI vice-captain Jos Buttler hit 57 off 22 balls with a fractured thumb in a T20 win over Worcestershire on Friday, the county club said X-rays had revealed. Buttler, left out of England's squad to face Pakistan in the first Test at Lord's next week, was injured keeping wicket in Lancashire's seven-wicket NatWest T20 Blast victory at home to Worcestershire but still opened his team's innings. "X-rays later revealed he sustained a small stable fracture which will be managed conservatively," Lancashire said on their website (www.lccc.co.uk) on Sunday. Worcestershire ran up a total of 198 which was overhauled with three wickets to spare as wicketkeeper Buttler scored Lancashire's fastest T20 half-century off 20 balls. He was out in the sixth over by which time Lancashire had set a record for runs scored in T20 powerplay overs in England. His match-winning innings came three days after he had struck an unbeaten 73 in England's T20 win over Sri Lanka. (Reporting by Rex Gowar; editing by Ken Ferris)