Derbyshire Falcons recorded their first victory in the 2015 NatWest T20 Blast, beating Lancashire Lightning by five wickets in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
Man of the Match Wayne White was the pick of the bowlers with 3-21 as Derbyshire restricted Lancashire to 127-9 from their 20 overs, with Tony Palladino (2-22) and Ben Cotton (2-28) both claiming two wickets apiece.
Derbyshire’s overseas duo of Hashim Amla (51) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (38), who was making his Falcons debut, were in stupendous form as they put on an opening partnership of 93 to calm any Derbyshire nerves.
Lancashire took a flurry of quick wickets in the middle overs to delay the Derbyshire victory, but Chesney Hughes and Shiv Thakor saw them home with 14 balls to spare to claim a five wicket win.
The decision to bowl first looked a good one as Ben Cotton took a wicket with his first ball in the third over, to clean bowl Liam Livingstone for eight.
Wayne White came on and took a wicket-maiden against his old county in the fifth over, clean bowling Karl Brown for 10.
Cotton then returned from the other end and removed the in-form Ashwell Prince for 4 to leave Lancashire teetering on 28-3.
Lancashire were struggling to score boundaries off a threatening Derbyshire attack and the frustration showed as Steven Croft scooped one straight to Wes Durston to give Dilshan his first Derbyshire wicket.
Tony Palladino confirmed Derbyshire’s dominance as he trapped Australia World Cup winner James Faulkner lbw for just seven in the twelfth over.
Palladino then removed Paul Horton, who was superbly caught by Amla at deep-backward square, for a hard-working 20 to leave the visitors 75-6.
Amla then took an even better catch to remove Jordan Clark for 10 off the bowling of White, before the same bowler then had Lilley caught behind without scoring to grab his third wicket.
Lancashire rallied late on through the talented wicket-keeper batsman Alex Davies, who was run out off the final ball for 41, as they closed on 127-9.
Derbyshire’s innings got off to flyer as Amla scored three boundaries inside the first two overs to help the hosts reach 17-0.
Dilshan was happy to give Amla the strike early on but he came to the party in the fifth over as he went after Faulkner, scoring 14 from the first three balls of the over.
The pair dismantled the Lancashire attack in the six Powerplay overs, putting on 64 without the loss of a wicket, as they made light work of a tricky looking chase.
They then kept the scoreboard ticking over following the end of the batting Powerplay, with no pressure on the two international batsman.
Amla reached his half-century from 36 balls with a six over fine leg, before being bowled the following ball by Clark to bring an end to a wonderful innings.
Faulkner then removed Tom Poynton for 1, as he skied a catch to Brown for a single, before Dilshan was run out for 38 in the same over.
Wes Durston feel for three as he mistimed a pull straight to Prince, before Scott Elstone was bowled for four with seven runs still required.
But Hughes and Thakor guided Derbyshire to 128-5 with 14 balls to spare, to earn the Falcons their first win of the competition.
