Amla and Dilshan make light work of Lancashire

The Derbyshire Falcons recorded their first Twenty20 victory of the season, achieving a near-perfect five-wicket win at home against Lancashire Lightning.

Derbyshire's overseas talent got the hosts off to a strong start as Hashim Amla (51) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (38) added 93 runs for the first wicket after Lancashire only managed to score 127/9 after being inserted by the home side.

Everything seemed to go Derbyshire's way; they won the toss, bowled with accuracy and rhythm and the bowlers were rewarded for their efforts as they sat back and watched the batsmen cruise to victory with five wickets and 14 balls to spare.

Alex Davies top-scored for Lancashire with 41 from 26 balls, but the visitors hit just eight boundaries as they struggled to reach a competitive total. James Faulkner failed to deliver a match winning performance on debut, scoring seven runs and claiming 1-31 from his allocation as Derbyshire achieved a rare win in this format. 

Liam Livingstone played-on for eight to Ben Cotton, before former Lancashire seamer Wayne White removed Karl Brown (10), who attempted to run the ball down to the third man, but he had hit middle stump uprooted. 

White's first over was a wicket maiden and Derbyshire's good progress continued inside the powerplay as boundaries became a luxury for the visitors. Ashwell Prince (4) made a career best score of 78 in Lancashire's last T20 match against Durham, but the frustration got to him and he was the third batsmen to be bowled as Lancashire fell to 28/3 inside the first six overs.

Captain Steven Croft fell for three when he chipped the ball to Wes Durston off Dilshan, who demonstrated his abilities as an all-round threat in this format, finishing with 1-26 from four overs. This wicket brought Faulkner to the crease and the Australian all-rounder did the sensible thing initially by playing himself in and not letting the pressure of the match situation enter his mind.

Lancashire needed a big performance from their new overseas signing but it wasn't the most memorable of debuts, as he fell lbw to Tony Palladino (2-22) for just seven as the Lightning stumbled their way to 60/5. 

Davies was superb but his lone effort was not enough to give Lancashire a respectable total.

Horton - playing in his first Twenty20 match of the season after serving a two-match ban - kept the scoreboard ticking over with singles, but the absence of a boundary for 50 deliveries gave Derbyshire absolute control of the game.

Davies was the only batsmen to play remotely aggressive strokes without being punished by finding the fielder, the fate that Horton (20) was to suffer when he picked out Amla at fine leg off Palladino, after he and Davies had added only 15 more runs for the sixth wicket. 

Jordan Clark (10) felt the same agony, scything a delivery from White into the hands of Amla, this time at deep backward point, as Lancashire fell to 95/7. White collected his third wicket to finish with figures of 3-21 when Arron Lilley edged behind for a golden duck, leaving the visitors in a desperate position.

Davies and Stephen Parry (11*) added vital late runs to give Lancashire a slim chance of salvaging anything from the match with the highest partnership of the innings worth 31 runs. Davies did the majority of the work in this stand, hitting three boundaries in as many overs to take Lancashire to 100 in 17.4 overs.

Lancashire finished the innings with a meagre total of 127/9, as Davies was ran out coming back for a second run and his innings of 41 had given the visitors something to cling on to despite a poor showing with the bat.

What made matters worse for Lancashire was the fact they had to try and defend such a low score while Derbyshire opened with the international expertise of Amla and Dilshan. 

The former, playing in his final game for Derby, led the charge with a 36-ball fifty as these two added 93 runs for the first-wicket partnership and Dilshan backed up his innings with a routine collaboration of well-timed sweeps and good running to keep the runs flowing for the home side. 

Lancashire managed just eight boundaries in their entire innings and the hosts had already managed to hit eight fours inside the first six overs as the Falcons achieved a powerplay score of 64/0. Amla continued to enjoy the lionshare of the scoring, reaching a superb half-century with a one-handed pick-up over long-on for six, before he was bowled by Clark the very next ball.

Amla attempted to guide the ball around the corner, but a good slower ball from Clark hit middle stump as Derbyshire lost their first wicket. It would have been the perfect victory for Derbyshire had they reached their target of 128 with the conviction they should have done at 93/0, but the loss of five wickets for 28 runs redeemed a modicum of respect for Lancashire.

Faulkner failed to inspire an unlikely comeback on his Lancashire debut.

Faulkner claimed his first wicket for Lancashire in the next over when Tom Poynton (1) guided a top-edge to Brown at square leg and Dilshan followed two balls later when he was ran out by a direct-hit from Lilley. 

It was the third wicket to fall in the space of 12 balls and a laboured piece of running from the Sri-Lankan resulted in the hosts losing their third wicket with just 29 more runs needed for victory. It was clear that Derbyshire had only achieved one victory in this format last season; they stumbled their way to their target after a superb start and the efforts of Amla and Dilshan, twinned with the superb bowling of the home side, meant that a minor falter from the batsmen could be excused.

Nevertheless, Derbyshire continued to lose wickets and Wes Durston (3) was next to go, chipping to Prince at long-on as Clark finished with 2-30 from his four-over allocation. Wickets continued to fall as Scott Elstone (4) was bowled by George Edwards (1-30), but by this stage, Derbyshire required only seven runs from 24 balls.

Chesney Hughes guided the home side to their first victory of the season in this format scoring an unbeaten 21 from 19 deliveries, but it was Shiv Thakor (1*) who secured victory, as Derbyshire got revenge for the innings defeat they suffered to Lancashire in the County Championship at Southport this week.