Derbys sunk without trace as Lancashire stroll to an easy victory

JOHN Morris made a point of reminding everyone that one performance did not mean Derbyshire had got it cracked in the Twenty20 Cup.

How true. The Phantoms were as poor last night, in sinking to a 10-wicket defeat by Lancashire at the County Ground, as they were impressive 24 hours earlier at Headingley.

Even in a hit-and-miss competition like this, such a wide margin of inconsistency is astonishing but that has been the story of Derbyshire's batting all season.

After hitting the Yorkshire bowling for 181-2, they were bowled out for an inadequate 111 four balls into the 18th over and that was never likely to stretch a Lancashire side that had demolished Leicestershire in their opening game.

Greg Smith and Wavell Hinds, who combined for a county record stand of 149 against Yorkshire, were both back in the pavilion before the end of the fourth over having made only eight runs between them.

Smith skied a pull at his second ball and Hinds was given caught behind, though he plainly felt he had not nicked it. The umpire from Barbados, Vanburn Holder, did the Jamaican no favours.

Hinds was, in fact, the third man out at 16-3, with Dom Telo having been drafted in to open the innings, taking the place of Jon Clare, but giving Sajid Mahmood the first of his three early victims which left Derbyshire struggling.

The third of them was Rikki Clarke in the sixth over, driving Mahmood straight to mid on to make it 27-4.

Derbyshire had contributed greatly to their own problems in their haste to get off to a flier and their innings was a salvage operation from that point.

Dan Birch and John Sadler tried to lay the ground for a reasonable total and put on a steady 29 in five overs before Birch was slow to respond to a call for a single that would have tested even a more alert runner and was run out for 25.

Sadler, who has tasted success in this competition with Leicestershire, was just getting into his stride when he swept at Gary Keedy and was caught at backward square leg for 25, one of three catches for Kyle Hogg.

Keedy was to prove an even bigger influence in the second half of Derbyshire's innings, with the left-arm spinner against showing his liking for playing Twenty20 against the county by taking 4-15.

That included a spell of three wickets in four balls following the demise of Sadler, as Charl Langeveldt smashed a full toss straight to deep midwicket and Jake Needham was lbw.

Before then, Jamie Pipe's entertaining efforts had been brought to a halt when, having hit Francois du Plessis for his second and third sixes of his 15-ball 31, he was caught on the deep midwicket boundary.

Graham Wagg is capable of similar big-hitting but when Nayan Doshi was stumped giving Keedy the charge, he was left stranded on nine not out.

Lancashire did everything right and extended that to their batting, as Mal Loye and Lou Vincent made a positive start by smashing 59 off the first six overs and then coasted through.

Loye finished 54 not out and Vincent 50 not out.

Doshi again bowled tidily, with four overs for 12, but Derbyshire had been thoroughly outplayed.