Lancashire crumble to Derbyshire
Tom Lungley removes Steven Croft, one of three wickets for the seamer
Derbyshire boosted their chances of reaching the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy after outplaying Lancashire to win by 100 runs at Derby.
The Lightning never looked like reaching a challenging target of 289 once Stuart Law and Mohammad Yousuf fell in the space of four balls, and there were 11.5 overs to spare when Derbyshire celebrated their first victory over Lancashire in the history of the competition which began life as the Gillette Cup.
The home side's total of 288 for five was built around an opening stand of 150 between Chris Rogers, who made 94, and Steve Stubbings, who batted through the 50 overs for an unbeaten 95.
Derbyshire also bowled impressively to record a third victory in the North Division. They will reach the last eight if they beat Yorkshire at the County Ground on Sunday.
They will have every chance of avenging their defeat at Headingley Carnegie last month if they repeat the performance that was too good for a Lancashire side who badly missed the experience of Glen Chapple and former Derbyshire captain Dominic Cork.
Although paceman Sajid Mahmood produced a testing opening spell on a wicket which had pace and bounce, the rest of the bowling lacked accuracy and Rogers and Stubbings took full advantage.
Kyle Hogg was warned for an unintentional beamer at Stubbings during an over which cost 14 and some shabby ground fielding did not help the visitors’ cause.
Gareth Cross is comprehensively bowled by Charl Langeveldt as Lancashire slip towards defeat
They gifted the Phantoms cheap runs and Rogers and Stubbings scored at five an over during a partnership which laid the platform for a charge which saw 80 runs come from the last 10 overs.
Rogers reached his highest one-day score in England before he was caught behind cutting at Hogg. He had faced 109 balls and hit 13 fours.
Dan Birch was caught off his glove and helmet but Rikki Clarke kept his team on course for a demanding total with a rapid 26 before he was lbw trying to paddle Mahmood.
Former Lancashire Academy player Jon Clare and John Sadler helped Stubbings press the accelerator and Lancashire’s chances of reaching their target suffered an early blow when Mal Loye was lbw to Graham Wagg in the third over for three.
Charl Langeveldt nipped one back to bowl Gareth Cross three overs later but Law and Yousuf were starting to threaten when the Phantoms landed a double blow.
Yousuf had scored 26 when he top-edged a pull off Wagg to long leg and Law was caught at slip for 22 off Tom Lungley, who finished with 3-31 off eight overs.
Lancashire were facing humiliation when former Derbyshire captain Luke Sutton played on to Lungley without scoring in the 20th over and, although 54 off 46 balls from Francois Du Plessis and some lusty hitting from Gary Keedy restored some pride, it could not save them from a heavy defeat.
