Derbyshire remain in top-four contention after thrashing Northamptonshire

Derbyshire Falcons revived their chances of qualifying for the Vitality Blast quarter-finals with a crushing nine wicket victory over Northamptonshire Steelbacks in the North Group match at Derby. Alex Hughes was the star of a disciplined bowling performance with 3 for 13 while Ravi Rampaul took 2 for 15 as the Steelbacks capitulated from 83 for 3 to 100 all out in the 18th over.

With only a meagre total to defend, the Steelbacks had to take early wickets but they managed only one as an unbeaten 51 by Wayne Madsen and 28 from Billy Godleman took the Falcons home with 17 balls to spare.

The Steelbacks set off like a train but were derailed by a double-wicket maiden from Fynn Hudson-Prentice, ran out of steam in the Powerplay and then fell apart in a desperate attempt to regain momentum on a slow pitch.

Richard Levi drove and pulled the first two balls from Rampaul for four and dispatched Logan van Beek over third man as 18 came from the second over. But that was as good as it got as Levi pulled Hudson-Prentice's first delivery to deep midwicket and after Adam Rossington played across the line two balls later, only nine runs came from four overs.

The sight of a ball from van Beek spitting and striking Rob Keogh on the hand was not encouraging for the batsmen and the Steelbacks hopes of setting a challenging total took another blow when Josh Cobb was run out going for a second by a direct hit from deep fine leg.

After 10 overs, the Steelbacks were 65 for 3 and the visitors spectacularly buckled under pressure as skillful seam and spin squeezed the life from the innings.

Hughes was the main destroyer, having Alex Wakely caught at deep mid-off before Dwaine Pretorius sliced to short third man and Graeme White was caught behind. Keogh failed to clear deep midwicket and when Rampaul polished off the innings to take his number of victims to 18, the highest in a T20 campaign for the Falcons, the Steelbacks had lost seven wickets for 19 runs in six overs.

Faced with such a modest target, there was no need for Derbyshire to take risks although Luis Reece swung Faheem Ashraf way back into the crowd behind the midwicket boundary in the fifth over.

Keogh trapped Reece lbw for 21 in the seventh over but Godleman and Madsen made sure there was no late drama with an unbroken stand of 67.