Lancashire all-but eliminated despite Petersen century against Leicestershire

Lancashire's worst fears were realised after they suffered another Twenty20 defeat against Leicestershire Foxes by nine runs at Grace Road, even after a brilliant and unbeaten century by the in-form Alviro Petersen.

The South-African veteran smashed 103 not out from 52 balls, carrying his bat for the second time in the Blast this season, but Lancashire failed to chase their mammoth target of 208, meaning that they are now bottom of the North Group. Petersen has now scored 299 runs in his last five T20 innings for Lancashire and he became the fourth player to score a century for the Red Rose in this format when he hit the final ball of the run-chase for a boundary to take him to a scintillating hundred.

This defeat, Lancashire's seventh of the campaign, means - barring strenuous mathematics - that the defending champions are now on the precipice of crashing out of the tournament. The Foxes raced to 207/3 with a magnificent partnership between Mark Pettini (76 off 51) and Cameron Delport (68 off 36), worth 140 runs in 12 overs.

It was a devastating partnership and one that would prove to be the difference between the two teams by the end of a tense game. The pair hit nine fours and ten sixes between them, treating Lancashire's bowlers with distain at times, as both the captain and South-African import made half-centuries to put Lancashire on the back foot after the visitors invited the Foxes to bat first.

After a circumspect start with the bat, Leicestershire were galvanised by the introduction of Delport, who struck his first half-century for the three-time champions in just 29 balls. Mark Cosgrove fell early on to Nathan Buck (1-31) when he skied to Jordan Clark at mid-off, but after a wasteful use of the poweplay, the hosts started to put their foot on the accelerator.

Having lost Cosgrove at 32/1 in the fifth over, Leicestershire's score was propelled to 92/1 at the halfway stage, with Deport's huge hitting over mid-wicket playing a key role in this sudden influx of runs. He finished the powerplay with the first of six maximums and the Proteas batsman then hit two sixes in succession off George Edwards to take 19 runs from the ninth over.

After taking advantage of a free-hit off Edwards by dispatching it high over mid-wicket, he repeated his shot for the same result, with the only difference being that the second six travelled even further than the previous delivery. The boundaries continued to come all-too frequently for Lancashire's liking, with Pettini racing to a 39-ball fifty with his second six in the 13th over.

Pettini and Delport registered a hundred-partnership in only 58 deliveries in the process of the latter reaching his half-century in only 29 balls, with Pettini hitting Stephen Parry for back-to-back sixes in the 16th over to reward a further 17 runs in a damaging spell for the reigning champions. Not to be outdone, Delport repeated the feat in Edwards' next over, hitting successive sixes to his favourite spot over mid-wicket, before falling for a brilliant and destructive 68 from 36 balls.

Edwards (1-48) had his man when Delport mistimed to Luis Reece in the covers at 172/2 and Pettini followed in quick succession for 76 when he was trapped plumb lbw by Clark (1-45) seven runs later. Brief cameos from Lewis Hill (15 off 8) and Fahraan Behradien (13 off 10) helped push Leicestershire beyond 200, with Hill hitting the final ball of the innings for six to set Lancashire a monolithic target of 208 to keep their T20 hopes alive.

Petersen hit Lancashire's highest individual score in T20 cricket, beating the 102 made by Lou Vincent in 2008.

Needing a similar start to the game at Worcester this time last week - when Lancashire hit 98 runs from the first six overs - the visitors suffered an early set back, as Luis Reece (2) had his stumps rearranged by Richard Jones (2-37) in the second over of the chase. Karl Brown hit back-to-back boundaries, but he struggled to make the most of the powerplay, scoring 18 from 21 balls before attempting to launch Rob Sayer's first ball of the game over the ropes, only to pick out Delport on the long-off boundary.

Had Liam Livingstone (10) been able to fire on all cylinders, Lancashire might have felt more comfortable about their indifferent start, but his dismissal at 59/3 resigned the visitors to an uphill struggle for the remainder of the match. Steven Croft helped Petersen to add 66 runs in 38 balls for the fourth wicket, with the captain playing a fearless innings to support the South-African's valiant effort.

Lancashire reached the 12th over before hitting their first six of the innings, with Petersen sweeping the first of four sixes. Before today, only Mal Loye, Stuart Law and Lou Vincent had hit hundred for Lancashire in Twenty20 cricket, but Petersen re-wrote the record books in his cause to keep the champions afloat.

Successive boundaries and a maximum held Croft to accelerate to 36 from 25 balls, but the Lancashire skipper tried to follow up his six with another meaty blow, picking out Rob Taylor on the longest boundary to leave the score at 125/4. Petersen continued to offer Lancashire hope hitting a 32-ball fifty, as he reached his half-century with a second maximum.

In a 72-run partnership with Tom Smith (9*) Petersen was responsible for the lionshare of the scoring, but a superb spell from Clint McKay proved decisive at the death of the innings. Mckay, the leading wicket-taker in the Big Bash over the winter, delivered two perfect overs of slower deliveries to frustrate Lancashire who required 89 to win from the last six overs.

Despite Petersen's best efforts in the intervening overs, including scoring 19 runs from the 18th over to take him to a new career-best in the format, the visitors were alway behind the required run rate. A heart-wrenching scene at the end of the match was confirmed when Petersen hit the final ball of the game for a boundary to move to his century in 52 balls, with Lancashire losing by nine runs.