Aneurin Donald blasts Derbyshire to back-to-back wins

Derbyshire Falcons completed back-to-back Vitality Blast derby wins in 24 hours with a seven-wicket victory over Leicestershire Foxes at Edgbaston.

The Foxes were lifted to a hefty 196 for five by an impressive collective effort headed by Sol Budinger 49 and Shan Masood's 43. Pat Brown took 3 for 51.

But the Falcons chased it down with ten balls to spare, reaching 197 for 3 as Aneurin Donald launched the chase with an explosive 60 from 25 balls and Samit Patel crowned it with an unbeaten 52 from 32. Having belatedly opened their Blast account at the sixth attempt against Notts Outlaws on Friday night, suddenly the Falcons are flying and right back in contention for quallification.

After the Foxes chose to bat, Budinger tore into the Falcons for the second time in a month. When these teams met in the group opener at Leicester, the 25-year-old blasted a 15-ball half-century. This time he thundered to 49, with seven fours and two sixes, by the eighth over. When he skied Samit Patel to backward point, his two Blast innings against the Foxes this season and yielded 100 runs from 41 balls.

Masood and Rehan Ahmed (29) maintained the momentum with a stand of 71 from 43 balls. At 136 for 2 in the 15th over with two batters well set, the Foxes were racing but the Falcons hit back with three wickets in five balls. Pat Brown removed Ahmed, who edged to wicketkeeper Brooke Guest, and Masood, caught at third man, in four balls before Louis Kimber missed a cut at Patel and was bowled.

Wickets usually slow the scoring but not in this case. Sixth-wicket pair Ben Cox (28 not out) and Logan van Beek (26 not out) settled quickly to smash 55 from the last 29 balls of the innings to ensure an imposing total.

Undaunted, Derbyshire openers Donald and Caleb Jewell galloped to 50 from just 23 balls. Donald took 22 from five balls from Matt Salisbury and thundered to 50, 48 of which came in fours and sixes, from 18 balls.

The Falcons were 93 without loss in the eighth over when Tom Scriven was brought on and took out both openers in his first over. Jewell edged to wicketkeeper Cox and two balls later an excellent delivery hit Donald's off-stump. Scriven followed his successful first over with another excellent one (2-0-7-2 at that stage) to further peg back the Falcons.

Patel and Wayne Madsen (35) deployed their considerable experience to good effect in a stand of 60 in 42 balls before Scriven returned to have the latter caught at long leg. Needing 22 from three overs, the Falcons still had a bit to do but Patel smote Scriven for successive sixes in the first of those overs to settle matters.