Shan back but he’s left high and dry in defeat
DERBYSHIRE could not match Steven Croft and Rob Jones’s decisive stand for Lancashire as they slipped to a 39-run defeat at Old Trafford in the Royal London Cup.
Shan Masood returned from international duty to score 82 but no-one could stay with him long enough and while Croft, 87 not out and Jones, 70 not out, never dashed on a pitch that did not encourage strokeplay, they lifted their side from 67-4 to post 221-4 from their 50 overs and it proved enough.
Lancashire’s openers scored only 31 runs off the first 10 overs of their innings as Sam Conners and Ben Aitchison maintained a tight line and length and Conner had in-form Luke Wells caught behind by Brooke Guest for seven.
Alex Thomson took three wickets in 13 balls to put Derbyshire in charge, having Josh Bohannon leg before for 15, bowling Keaton Jennings for 33 and seeing Washington Sundar drive his first ball straight to Billy Godleman at mid-off.
That was it for Derbyshire though as Croft and Jones played sensibly.
Croft passed 50 in 73 balls with four fours and Jones in 71 balls with only one four, although he added a six as they scored 40 from the last six overs and set a Lancashire’s fifth-wicket record in List A cricket.
Derbyshire’s chase began just as poorly, Luis Reece setting off quickly but skying to deep square leg for 17, before Liam Hurt brought one back to bowl Godleman for one.
Harry Came was perhaps unfortunate to be given out caught down the leg side for a single but when Brooke Guest chipped Washington to Croft at midwicket, Derbyshire were 53-4.
Masood and Anuj Daj began the same repair as Croft and Jones and, at the halfway point, they were 89-4, two runs better off than Lancashire at the same stage.
The difference was that they did not stay together.
Dal played on to Hurt for 15, Mattie McKiernan helped Masood add 48 in 12 overs but was leg before to Williams for 27 and Thomson was caught and bowled by Luke Wells for two to leave Derbyshire needing 76 off the last 10 overs.
Wickets kept falling and Masood was last out, holing out to deep midwicket.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Thomson, who finished with 3-25.
“We’ll be looking back on that game and thinking that we should have got home, especially with the start we had.
“They probably got 20 too many but I think the way Croft and Jones went about it showed us how we should have batted after we had a little collapse up top.
“We’ll now be thinking where we could have done better.”
IT had all been much better for Derbyshire on Friday night, as the batting came good for them to pile up a challenging 318-6, enough to beat Essex by 92 runs in Chelmsford.
Reece’s early impetus lasted until he had scored 52 and Godleman made 35 as they opened up with 64 in fewer than 10 overs.
Although three wickets went down at 117, Came, Tom Wood and Reece, Guest settled into a crucial knock of 88 from 79 balls and Mattie McKiernan provided the big impetus with a hard-hitting 72 not out from 49 balls, with eight fours and a six.
The pair added 125 for the sixth wicket.
Conners and Aitchison took an early wicket each in Essex’s reply and the nearest they came to a significant early partnership was between Josh Rymell and Grant Roelofsen with 53 for the third wicket before Reece had Rymell caught behind.
Aitchison took an exemplary 2-21 from eight overs and by the time Jamal Richards top-scored with 46 for Essex, the game was already gone for them.
“That’s the blueprint of how we want to play our one-day cricket,” said Guest.
“We bat first, set a big score and put the pressure on them from ball one.
“It was nice to show we’ve got enough to compete against teams like Essex, who have been one of the best teams in county cricket for the last 5-10 years.”