Lancs spinners strangle Derbyshire

Tight bowling by spinners Simon Kerrigan and Arron Lilley aided by some athletic fielding helped Lancashire to defeat Derbyshire by 12 runs at Old Trafford.

The young pair returned identical figures of 1 for 25 from their four overs as Steven Croft's side restricted the visitors to 153 for 6 in reply to Lightning's 165 for nine. The win was Lancashire's third in six games and it boosts their hopes of qualifying the quarter-finals from the North Group.

The home side's innings was dominated by a knock of 74 by opener Stephen Moore whose 42-ball innings included five sixes and five fours. Moore was particularly hard on David Wainwright, taking 23 runs off the slow left-armer's third over. But that acceleration was desperately needed by a Lancashire side who had initially struggled to dominate.

A modest 38 runs had been scored off the first six overs for the loss of Tom Smith, Karl Brown and Simon Katich, two of the wickets falling to Tim Groenewald who eventually finished with 3 for 32.

Moore was joined by skipper Croft and the pair added 76 runs for the fourth wicket in only 8.2 overs before offspinner Dan Redfern dismissed both batsmen in quick succession.

Brief injections of acceleration were supplied by Ashwell Prince and Gareth Cross but Lancashire's final total of 165 was probably little more than par on a good pitch.

Derbyshire seamer Mark Turner profited from a late dash for runs and ended the innings with 4 for 35 while Redfern collected 2 for 17 and outfielder Chesney Hughes pouched three fine catches.

In contrast to Lancashire's innings, the Derbyshire reply got off to a fine start with Wes Durston hitting sixes off both Tom Smith and Kabir Ali as 54 runs were plundered off the first six overs. But the run rate slowed once Durston had been trapped lbw by Kerrigan for a 29-ball 48 and the innings never quite regained the required momentum.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul made an inventive 39 off 31 balls before being run out by a direct hit from mid-on by Mitchell McClenaghan, although by then a hamstring injury had forced Chanderpaul to use a runner.

Derbyshire needed 46 runs off the final four overs and skipper Wayne Madsen made 36 in a vain effort to keep up with the asking rate as Kabir Ali and McClenaghan applied the pressure. The New Zealand bowler finished with 2 for 26 and reinforced his reputation as a very skilful seamer in short-form cricket.