Lancashire 181 for 5 (Salt 80, Buttler 54) beat Northamptonshire 177 (Mahmood 4-49) by five wickets
Phil Salt shrugged off an enforced change of bat to blaze 80 from 57 balls and power Lancashire Lightning to a win that lifted them above Northamptonshire Steelbacks in the Vitality Blast North Group table.
The England white-ball international, playing his first game since winning the IPL with Royal Challengers Bangalore a month ago, had to call for a replacement bat after umpires Simon Widdup and Rob Bailey inspected his original blade early in the Lancashire run-chase.
But it made little difference as Salt and Jos Buttler (54 from 42), making his first Blast appearance in two years, pummelled the Steelbacks bowling with a stand of 123 from 86 to set up victory.
Earlier, paceman Saqib Mahmood became only the second Lancashire bowler to take a Blast hat-trick, capturing the last three wickets to finish with four for 49 as the Steelbacks - who have now lost three in a row - were bowled out for 177.
Opting to bat first, the Steelbacks handed a Blast debut to New Zealander Tim Robinson, who slashed successive boundaries off James Anderson's first over before the next delivery straightened to send his off stump flying.
Anderson (two for 24) then had David Willey caught at short third man off a thick edge and the home side were three down when Ricardo Vasconcelos skied Mahmood's first ball to mid-on.
Having got away with two miscued hooks, Ravi Bopara (32 from 25) launched a rebuilding job alongside Justin Broad (30 from 18) and Northamptonshire's innings appeared to be back on track until both fell in quick succession.
Broad was bowled swinging at Jack Blatherwick before Bopara pumped Chris Green's full toss to short cover, but Lewis McManus (30 from 24) regained momentum, bludgeoning successive fours as Mahmood's third over went for 16.
McManus shared a stand of 54 with Saif Zaib (32 from 19), whose run-out was the first of four consecutive wickets as Mahmood's brace of yorkers removed Ben Sanderson and Lloyd Pope before George Scrimshaw was caught in the deep.
Lancashire's reply was held up after a single over while the umpires inspected Salt's bat - and ordered its replacement - and they soon lost Keaton Jennings, caught paddling Willey to backward square leg.
Buttler looked in good touch, smashing Willey and Broad for straight sixes and milking the spinners during the post-powerplay overs.
There was a close call for Salt when he pulled Bopara to deep midwicket, but Zaib was slow to make ground and the opener responded by punching six over long-off and hooking Scrimshaw for another to bring up his half-century from 37 balls.
Buttler was one ball faster to his 50, but Lightning faltered when he was bowled attempting to reverse sweep Pope and Sanderson's crafty spell of one for 28 removed Salt, holing out off a low full toss.
Scrimshaw took two wickets in the 19th over to leave Lancashire needing 11 from the last, but Luke Wells hammered Luke Procter for successive sixes to clinch victory with three balls to spare.
