Lancashire captain Steven Croft struck an unbeaten 94 runs from 51 balls during a record-breaking stand with James Faulkner to help condemn Derbyshire to defeat by 67 runs in the NatWest T20 Blast.
Derbyshire bowled well early on but some excellent striking by Croft and Faulkner during an unbroken 151-run stand meant that the Lightning posted 201-3 from their 20 overs.
Despite contributions from Chesney Hughes (39), Tillakaratne Dilshan (21) and Wayne Madsen (18), the target proved far too much for the Falcons who were eventually bowled out for 134.
Madsen said: “Clearly the partnership between Croft and Faulkner took it away from us. We missed our execution with the ball and a score of 200 is tough to chase.
“We played well early doors and were in a decent position, but then we just lost wickets. We had to go hard at it, but they bowled pretty well.”
Ashwell Prince got Lancashire off to a brisk start after they were put in, but Wayne White had him trapped in front with the final ball of the fourth over for 19.
The powerplay overs had yielded 42 runs and a wicket and Derbyshire struck again in the next over when Tony Palladino had Karl Brown caught by Chesney Hughes off his bowling for eight. Skipper Durston had a wicket of his own soon after when he bowled Liam Livingstone around his legs for 15 in a good spell of bowling by Derbyshire.
Durston and Palladino bowled in tandem between the sixth and twelfth overs of the Lightning innings without conceding a boundary.
But in the 13th over, the game swung in favour of the hosts. Palladino’s final over went for 21 and signalled a brutal late charge by Lancashire. A remarkable partnership between Steven Croft and James Faulkner took Lancashire from 50-3 to 201-3 at the end of their innings.
Both Croft and Faulkner began their innings in relatively slow fashion before kicking on the final eight overs to finish unbeaten on 94 from 51 balls and 47 from 31 balls respectively to set Derbyshire 202 runs to win.
The Falcons lost Durston off the second ball of the reply when he edged Faulkner to slip without scoring. Dilshan hit Tom Bailey for a six and a four from the first two balls of his first over but the bowler had his revenge when Dilshan edged him behind next ball for 21.
Despite the two early wickets, Derbyshire continued to score well and finished the powerplay on 53-2, thanks to some controlled striking by Hughes.
Hughes batted on until the 11th over of the chase when, on 39 from 32 balls, Prince caught him off the bowling of Aaron Lilley and Derbyshire were 79-3.
Billy Godleman fell for 18 soon after that, bowled by Bailey before Croft had his first wicket when Madsen was caught off his bowling for 18 from 12 balls.
Two overs later, Scott Elstone and Tom Poynton were both caught by Lilley at long-on off the bowling of Stephen Parry in consecutive balls for seven and six respectively. Parry took a further two wickets before Saqib Mahmood took his first wicket in the Lancashire first-team to bowl Derbyshire out for 134 and hand Lancashire victory by 67 runs.
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Derbyshire are back in home NatWest T20 Blast action on Thursday 18 June when they welcome Leicestershire Foxes to The 3aaa County Ground.
