Lancashire defeated comfortably by Essex

Westley led the Essex run-chase with 84.

Lancashire suffered another humbling defeat in the Royal London One Day cup after losing by six wickets to Essex at Chelmsford.

Just days after the Lightning secured a place at Finals day, their prospects in the 50-over competition took further damage after a third successive defeat.

A total of 247/7 always seemed under par at Chelmsford and the hosts demonstrated this by achieving their victory with 11.5 overs to spare.

Lancashire made steady progress thanks to Karl Brown (47) and Paul Horton (49), who added 68 for the third-wicket partnership.

But for all their efforts with the bat the visitors did not show enough aggression and were outplayed by Tom Westley (84) and Jessie Ryder (71) who demonstrated a level of intent which seemed to be missing in  Lancashire's innings.

There were some positives to be found amongst the obvious disappointment felt by the visitors.
Tom Bailey struck in his first over of List A cricket to remove Mark Pettini (2) at the start of the Essex run-chase and Arron Lilley showed a lot of promise, claiming 2-36 after dismissing Westley and Greg Smith (27).

Bailey showed promise on his
List A debut for Lancs.

Lancashire's sub-par score could have been even more underwhelming had it not been for the experience of Steven Croft, who added 51 to give his side a fighting chance.

However, a total which seemed insufficient proved to be just that, as Ryder and Ryan ten Doeschate (26) shared an unbeaten stand worth 80 to guide Essex to their second victory of the campaign.

Defending a target of 248 was made that much harder by Lancashire's mistakes in the field, with Brown dropping Ryder in the early stages of his stay at the crease.

Westley was fortunate to escape at the start of the match when he was caught by Ashwell Prince off a no-ball. He took full advantage of this slice of luck, going on to make a big score instead of leaving his side struggling at 14/2.