Derbyshire hopes fade with defeat to Durham

A 55-run defeat to Durham at Emirates Riverside all but ended Derbyshire’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages of this summer’s Vitality Blast.

Leus du Plooy top-scored with an unbeaten 53, but an emphatic 71 from Ben Raine in a 123-run stand with Alex Lees (77 not out) created an insurmountable chase and Derbyshire slipped to a fourth defeat.

In an encounter between two sides struggling for form in Twenty20 cricket, exacerbated by matches lost to rain, Durham elected to bat first and soon took an early foothold.

Lees, who came into the match as the hosts’ leading run-scorer in the competition, continued his fine form in a measured innings which gave Graham Clark (45) and Raine license at the other end.

The left-hand, right-hand combination of the experienced Lees and his counterpart Clark, made it tricky for the Derbyshire bowlers to settle and Durham raced to 51 without loss at the end of the fourth over.

Wayne Madsen’s hurried off spin forced the breakthrough, as Clark failed to get under a quicker delivery, only able to drive in the air to du Plooy at mid-off.

The wicket briefly saw Derbyshire regain control of the run rate, Raine making just three from his first eight deliveries. His ninth went for six over mid-wicket off Matt Critchley and this signalled the start of a barrage of clean-hitting to power Durham towards their highest T20 score versus Derbyshire.

Raine’s eight sixes, including one which was dropped by Critchley, conscious of stepping over the long-on boundary, came in a 39-ball 71 which proved to be the difference between the teams.

Lees, who anchored the innings throughout, brought up his third half-century of the campaign in 39 balls as Derbyshire’s seamers were punished with any delivery which erred in line or length, Durham going on to post 223-2.

Faced by what would be a club-record T20 run-chase, Luis Reece struck Brydon Carse for six over mid-wicket, before doing the same to Matty Potts from a good-length delivery.

While Reece was able to hit four boundaries in the powerplay, Billy Godleman struggled to time the spinner and was then out to Paul Coughlin, edging behind after coming down the track, starting a steady trickle of wickets as the required run rate crept up.

Madsen (12) was unable to pull off his usually adept ramp over the wicketkeeper and when Critchley (8) feathered behind in a similar fashion, Derbyshire’s chances ebbed away.

Du Plooy and Mattie McKiernan (25) combined well for Derbyshire’s highest partnership of the match (48), but by then the game had gone as the required rate rose above 20.

McKiernan toe-ended a low delivery from Nathan Rimmington to long-on and was out in the penultimate over, before the left-handed du Plooy brought up his half-century in the last, Derbyshire closing on 168-5, 56 runs short of their target.

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Vitality Blast is back! Derbyshire Falcons return to Twenty20. Follow every game live on our match centre at derbyshireccc.com. Derbyshire Falcons: Underestimated No More.