Lancashire Lightning suffered their sixth defeat of the NatWest T20 Blast campaign after the Derbyshire Falcons cruised to a six-wicket victory with eight balls to spare at home against the reigning champions.
A masterful 79 from 49 balls from Alviro Petersen - a Twenty20 best for Lancashire - underpinned the visitor's innings of 167/9, but Derbyshire's openers, Hamish Rutherford (47 from 27) and Wes Durston (51 from 34), ensured that the Falcons inflicted a damaging defeat on Lancashire, who are now struggling to qualify for the quarter-finals.
The Lightning were going strong after Petersen and Luis Reece (32 from 22) launched Lancashire to a powerplay score of 63/0, but regular wickets towards the end of the innings allowed Derby to fight back with the ball. Having claimed six wickets for ten runs in the last 15 balls of Lancashire's innings, Rutherford and Durston then smashed 75 runs from the first six overs to propel the home side towards their target of 168.
Lancashire's innings started brightly with three boundaries for Reece in the second over and Petersen responded with two sixes in quick succession off Wayne Madsen and Jimmy Neesham (4-36). Petersen took advantage of a dropped catch to help the visitors reach 50 in the fifth over, before Reece paddled Andy Carter for six down to fine leg to give Lancashire a strong platform at 63/0 after six overs.
Reece fell to spinner Matt Critchley's (2-20) fifth ball when he was judged lbw for a positive 32 after he and Petersen had added 68 runs for the opening stand. Karl Brown (4) then followed in Critchley's next over, also lbw, with two wickets falling for eight runs in the space of two overs at 76/2. Petersen's third maximum helped take him to a 30-ball fifty with Liam Livingstone crunching a huge six of his own over the leg side to bring up the 100 for Lancashire in the 12th over.
However, Livingstone (16) then edged a bouncer from Neesham behind to Harvey Hosein, leaving Petersen with the responsibility to guide Lancashire to a competitive score. He found able support from captain Steven Croft, who hit 27 from 20 balls to add 51 runs with Petersen for the fourth wicket in 32 balls.
Petersen was six runs short of an overall career-best in T20 cricket when he fell for 79 from 49 balls, turning a delivery from Shiv Thakor (1-25) to Carter at short fine leg to start the flurry of wickets for the home side. Jordan Clark made just one run before he was bowled cleanly by Carter shortly after his catch off Thakor and Luke Procter was then run out for no score attempting an ambitious second run to get Croft back on strike.
Croft's departure at 163/7 the following ball made it four wickets for six runs in 11 balls for Derbyshire when the Lancs skipper was held in the deep by Critchley off Neesham. Four wickets fell in the final over of the innings when Stephen Parry (0) was bowled by Neesham attempting to paddle the seamer and Tom Moores fell in identical fashion for one run to leave Lancashire with a competitive, yet modest final score, of 167/9 after a racing start.
Lancashire's misery was then compounded when Rutherford and Durston took their turn to bat, as the Derby openers used the pace and bounce on the ball to find the boundary regularly inside the first six overs. The innings started badly for the visitors when Nathan Buck's first ball bounced over Rutherford's head for a no-ball, before the Kiwi batsman hit a boundary from the first legal ball of the run-chase.
This rather set the tone for the rest of the match, and certainly for the 75-run opening stand between Rutherford and Durston, who hit eight fours and six maximums between them to take their side a comfortable win on home soil. The first 50 runs came in only 23 balls, with Rutherford leading the assault, as he hit 47 from 27 balls.
Having earlier hit Buck for a six, Rutherford welcomed George Edwards into the attack with a second maximum over the leg side, before Durston hit a six of his own to reap 18 runs from the fifth over of the run-chase. A devastating platform had been set after the first six overs at 75/0, but Stephen Parry (1-25) collected a vital breakthrough with his second ball to deny Rutherford a fifty when he flashed hard and edged to Edwards at short third man.
Parry and captain Croft (2-24) threatened to put Lancashire back into contention, particularly when the latter took two wickets in as many balls towards the conclusion of the game, but his Derbyshire counterpart continued to clear the ropes. Durston's third maximum, a lofted drive over long off, was followed by a similar strike down the ground from Chesney Hughes (22), as the hosts continued to tick along above the required run rate.
Durston raced to a half-century in 32 balls with his fourth and final six and after adding 56 runs for the second wicket with Hughes, Derby lost their second wicket at 131/2 in the 14th over. Croft struck blows in successive deliveries, accounting for Hughes after a smart catch by Petersen, before Durston was then caught and bowled for 51 off 34 balls.
Despite taking two wickets in quick succession, Lancashire had leaked too many runs in the first six overs to recover their stronghold in the game, with Neil Broom's (8) dismissal at 151/4 proving to be in vain after he was held on the long-on boundary by Croft off Clark (1-28). Madsen (7*) relieved any nominal pressure that was beginning to build when he dispatched a bouncer from Clark over third man for six - the eighth maximum of the innings - with a shot that all-but confirmed victory for the Falcons.
Having taken four wickets in Lancashire's innings, New Zealand all-rounder Neesham struck three boundaries in his unbeaten innings of 23 from 15 balls, as Derbyshire cruised to victory by six wickets with eight balls to spare.
This defeat means that Lancashire can still mathematically qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament, but they will have to win their last three games if they are to do so. The Falcons, meanwhile, move up to fifth in the North Group to bolster their chances of a place in the quarter finals, although they will also need a purple patch in the last few group games to qualify.
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