SECOND XI REPORT: Lancashire lose T20 doubleheader against Derbyshire
Derbyshire ran out narrow winners in both matches of the T20 doubleheader at Westhoughton, clinching the opening game by five wickets with five balls to spare, and the second by a margin of four wickets with seven balls left to keep their Second XI T20 qualification hopes alive.
It was a double disappointment for Lancashire who were unable to defend two low-looking scores of 126 and 111 on a wicket where the spinners generally held sway.
In the first match, Lancashire were restricted to 126-7 from their 20 overs after winning the toss by some good, accurate bowling from the Derbyshire attack with only Harry Singh getting more than ten runs, the Red Rose opener making an excellent unbeaten 81 from 65 balls that included 5 sixes and 5 fours.
But no-one in the Lancashire line up could forge a partnership with the opening bat as wickets fell steadily throughout the innings with only 32 runs coming from the powerplay and the halfway stage reached on 51-4.
Singh was chiefly responsible for most of the 32 runs taken from the final three overs of the innings to give the total a boost, with Derbyshire leg spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar taking 1-24 and off spinner Alex Thomson (2-20) exploiting the slow wicket.
Derbyshire made good, early progress after Anuerin Donald was run out without facing a ball courtesy of some quick work from Jack Carney and Tom Hartley.
Harrison Parker and Yousaf Bin Naeem advanced the score steadily to 63 by the ninth over before Parker pulled Charlie Barnard to Ollie Sutton at deep backward square leg for 27.
Lancashire had further success when Arav Shetty bowled Bin Naeem for 39 with Derbyshire 85-3 at the start of the 13th over with 42 runs needed from 53 balls.
Ross Whiteley and skipper Samit Patel steered the visitors to within easy reach of that target before Sutton yorked Whiteley for 31 and Patel gave Hartley a return catch on 12, leaving Amrit Basra and Thomson to hit the ten runs required, a task they completed with five balls to spare.
TEAMS – MATCH 1
Lancashire: Harry Singh, Kesh Fonseka, Arav Shetty, Ollie Sutton, George Harris, Charlie Barnard, Joe Chapple, Jack Carney (wkt), Tom Hartley (capt), Josh Boyden, Mitch Stanley.
Derbyshire: Amrit Basra, Yousaf Bin Naeem, Anuerin Donald (wkt), Nick Potts, Jack Green, Harrison Parker, Samit Patel (capt), Ross Whiteley, Alex Thomson, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Pat Brown.
The second match followed a remarkably similar pattern to the first with Lancashire posting 111-9 from their 20 overs after winning the toss once again. This time it was Arav Shetty who held the innings together with 41 off 34 balls while wickets fell steadily at the opposite end.
The powerplay ended with the hosts on 44-4 and the only partnership of note was the 30 between Shetty and Gennaro Reddy that took Lancashire to 73-4 by the end of the 12th over.
Leg spinner Ajay Khunti (3-13) then struck decisively with three wickets in four balls to remove Ollie Sutton, Shetty and Josh Boyden and it was only the 12 runs hit by Haider Hussain in the final over that gave Lancashire any sort of defendable total.
The Red Rose attack made a valiant effort, reducing Derbyshire to 49-4 by the ninth over with Charlie Barnard taking two wickets and conceding just 15 runs from his four overs, with fellow spinners Tom Hartley (1-20 from four) and Shetty (0-21 from 4 overs) just as hard to score off.
Having contributed with the ball, Khunti did likewise with the bat making 27 off 22 balls and his stand 40 off 34 balls with Joe Hawkins for the sixth wicket proved decisive.
Barnard had Khunti stumped and Sutton had Hawkins caught at midwicket for 18 to leave Derbyshire 94-6 at the start of the 17th over.
Nick Potts and Joe Hall scored the 18 runs needed by that point to take Derbyshire to victory in the 19th over.
TEAMS – MATCH 2
Lancashire: Harry Singh, Kesh Fonseka, Arav Shetty, Ollie Sutton, Charlie Barnard, Tom Hartley (capt), Jack Carney (wkt), Josh Boyden, Hassan Mughal, Haider Hussain, Gennaro Reddy.
Derbyshire: Amrit Basra, Yousaf Bin Naeem, Nick Potts (capt), Jack Green, Harrison Parker, Joe Hawkins, Ajay Khunti, Matthew Stewart, Rohan Vallabhaneni, Joe Hall (wkt), Manraj Johal.
Lancashire return to Westhoughton C.C. on Thursday (July 3rd) to round off their T20 campaign with a match against Yorkshire starting at 2pm.