David Willey leads from front as Northants make it six in a row

Northamptonshire 162 for 4 (Willey 47) beat Worcestershire 154 for 5 (Roderick 47, Sales 3-34) by six wickets

David Willey marked his 50th game as Northamptonshire Steelbacks ' T20 captain by guiding them to a sixth successive Vitality Blast victory as they overcame Worcestershire Royals at Wantage Road.

The Steelbacks skipper claimed 2 for 28 with the ball. then top-scored with 47 from 33 balls, sharing a decisive stand of 69 with Justin Broad - and passing 5000 T20 career runs in the process.

A second-wicket partnership of 62 from 48 between Gareth Roderick. Brett D'Oliveira anchored the Rapids' total of 154 for 5 from 18 overs after they were put in, with Sikandar Raza adding an unbeaten 36 from 24.

But it was not enough as Chris Lynn (37 from 18) set the tone for Northamptonshire to chase down a rain-adjusted target, hammering 28 off a single Tom Taylor over before Willey. Broad finished the job.

Having won the toss. Willey - who also equalled Alex Wakely's Steelbacks record of 133 T20 appearances - proceeded to lead by example with three miserly powerplay overs that included a wicket maiden.

That wicket, with Kashif Ali top-edging to point, was Northamptonshire's solitary success during the first half of the innings. Roderick (47 from 32) injected some fuel into the Rapids' tank by plundering 20 off a single Saif Zaib over.

However, both batters fell to James Sales (3 for 34) in the space of three deliveries as D'Oliveira holed out to deep midwicket. Zaib, scampering in from the fence, held his nerve to take a skier from Roderick while narrowly avoiding a collision with team-mate Ricardo Vasconcelos.

Raza. Adam Hose launched Worcestershire's rebuilding job, which was held up by a downpour at the end of the 13th over - leaving them just five more in which to add 53 to their total.

Although Willey collected the wicket of Hose. Ethan Brookes belted successive sixes off Ben Sanderson in his nine-ball knock of 19, with Raza also clearing the ropes twice to haul the visitors above 150.

The Steelbacks started slowly in pursuit. with the first two overs yielding only nine before Lynn launched a merciless assault, with two of his four cleanly-struck sixes in Taylor's next over disappearing out of the ground.

Vasconcelos' mistimed drive to mid-off handed Adam Finch a breakthrough,. Nathan McSweeney arrived at the party by flaying Ben Allison for a string of boundaries to keep the Steelbacks comfortably ahead of the equation.

But Worcestershire struck back as Lynn skied Finch to cover. McSweeney was caught behind trying to reverse-sweep Raza - who applied the brakes in tandem with fellow spinner Usama Mir.

The required rate crept up above nine, but Broad eased the pressure with a straight six off Raza. Willey then followed suit, pumping Finch for successive maximums before Allison bowled him around his legs.

The hard work had already been done. Broad (26 not out from 18) sealed victory, driving Raza to the cover boundary with two overs to spare.