RECORD-BREAKER Adam Lyth is hoping he can force his way back into the England reckoning after his stunning 161 for Yorkshire in Thursday’s run-ladened NatWest T20 Blast win over Northamptonshire at Headingley.

Lyth underpinned Yorkshire’s staggering score of 260-4 in a 124-run win which kept their chances of quarter-final qualification alive.

The Vikings, for whom Azeem Rafiq also took 5-19, must wait on other results in the North Group tonight to see if they have qualified for next week’s last eight.

Both Lyth and Yorkshire now hold the record individual and team scores in English T20 history, while world records were not far off.

Lyth’s 73-ball effort, including 20 fours and seven sixes, is the third highest score ever posted in this format behind Chris Gayle’s 175 in the IPL in 2013 and Hamilton Masakadza’s 162 in Zimbabwean domestic cricket last year.

The Vikings also fell just four runs short of breaking the world record score in an innings after Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 263-5 when Gayle went berserk and Australia hit 263-3 against Sri Lanka in 2015. Yorkshire are next best on that list.

Lyth played seven Tests for England in 2015, and while he has not had a great summer in Championship cricket, he has impressed against the white ball.

He scored 304 runs from nine one-day Cup matches with three fifties and has added 535 from 12 Twenty20 innings.

He was the leading T20 run-scorer in the country ahead of tonight’s round of fixtures.

“I still want to play Test cricket,” said the 29-year-old left-hander. “That’s the pinnacle. Nights like that on Sky will do me no harm.

“Pulling on an England shirt in any format is a dream come true. I’ve played Test cricket, but playing T20s or one-dayers would be absolutely fantastic. You never know. All I can do is keep churning out big runs.”

In between his seven Test Matches in 2015, Lyth was actually left out of Yorkshire’s T20 side when he returned to county action.

But now he is a shoo-in selection alongside Tom Kohler-Cadmore and David Willey in the Vikings powerful top three.

“I’ve always seen myself as a limited overs player as well as one suited to four-day and Test cricket,” he said.

“That was a decision that the captain and coach made at the time, but now it’s going well for me and I’ve got the shirt. I’m a bit older now, I know my game and read the game a lot better.

“I love the first six overs. With two fielders out, you’ve got to make use of that, and I’ve done that very well this year. Not just me, but Tom and Dave as well.”

Yorkshire have posted scores of 227-5, 233-6, 223-5 and now 260-4 in this season’s Blast. With that in mind, it is amazing to think they have not breezed into the quarter-finals.

“There was just a couple of games in the middle where we didn’t play well enough,” added Lyth.

“I’m not picking on the bowlers here, but the batters have been fantastic this year. Unfortunately, it’s been our batters in four-day cricket and our bowlers in white ball cricket.

“Hopefully we get the chance to go a long way in the tournament.”