CRICKET: Prince & Brown clip the Falcons wings

Lancashire Lightning    225 -7       Derbyshire Falcons 190 – 7     

Lancashire Lightning won by 35 runs 

Lancashire Lightning cemented their place as winners of the Natwest t20 Blast North section Friday night with a victory over the bottom of the table Derbyshire Falcons, thanks mainly to the home side batting display with Ashwell Prince and Karl Brown both scoring their respective fifties.

The win also saw Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff omitted from the squad for the Derbyshire game after he was ruled out with a slight Calf strain picked up in training and so was replaced in line up by bowler Wayne White.

As it happened the Lightning needn’t have worried about missing their returning star in the squad, as the Batsmen in the Red Rose side more than made up for it scoring their second highest score at the Emirates Old Trafford in t20 history as they notched up 225 for 7 in their innings.

Lancashire won the toss and chosen to unsurprising bat first on what looked like a very good batting surface, especially with the exceptionally hot weather that was being experienced up and down the UK.

It saw the openers in Tom Smith and Ashwell Prince unable to get going in the first over of the match, but then once they did find their groove it became carnage from a Derbyshire viewpoint.

Tom Smith struck three fours in the second over with two coming back to back, unfortunately for the Lancashire man his intended big six off the last ball of the over saw his shot gathered by Greg Cork the son of former player at both Lancashire and Derbyshire in Dominic Cork.

Karl Brown came to the crease and saw him and Prince take it to the Derbyshire attack in buckets as the visitors were blown away by the top order batsman in the Lightning`s innings. Both players started to motor along and saw the home side reach 50 after the Fifth over of play and with massive gaps in the Falcons field, along with some poor bowling to boot.

It saw Karl Brown hitting the bowlers all over the ground, while his partner down the other end in Ashwell Prince had him smashing the ball for sixes and saw some better fielding in the crowd than some on the pitch.

With the Lightning racing along towards three figures, it saw Prince smash another six into the stands to bring up his half century. Sadly he departed soon after for (56) just shortly after the home side brought up their hundred on the scoreboard.

Prince got out when he attempted another big shot and was only able to find the man near the ropes with Marcus North picking up a wicket thanks to Wes Durston taking the catch.

Derbyshire Falcons players enjoyed a brief moment of joy, as after they got the big hitter out in Prince they had to deal with another big hitter in Jos Buttler, as the home side wanted to make a statement and they did more than that. 

With Buttler on strike facing his second ball of his innings he proceeded to make the Falcons bowlers toil hitting two fours to the boundary and then smashed a six and four in consecutive balls, to see the runs pile on for the Lightning as they were closing in quick on 150.

Karl Brown brought up his half century with a single at the end of the Thirteenth over, to see him get it in 30 balls and then saw the hosts bring up 152 on the scoreboard with the batsmen running quickly between the wickets.

Brown`s innings then came to a close after he struck a monster six that bounced off the big red Point building and straight to the field down at deep third man. The next ball then saw him attempt another big hit, but instead found Durston once more open in the field to see a similar result to Prince as Karl Brown walked off to a massive ovation from the big crowd in the ground with the Lightning man making (58).

Steven Croft then came out and saw his first ball go for four, before then being run out the very next ball off some good fielding by Wayne Madsen to see him head back for (4).

Jos Buttler was carrying on about his business before a shot went skywards and was taken by Billy Godleman off the bowling of Ben Cotton in which he finished with 1 for 49 in his four overs. 

Lancashire then saw their hopes of hitting 200 faltering a bit with quick wickets falling quickly after Buttler was out for (39), it saw Wayne White out for (3) and then Aaron Lilley out for a duck which saw Jordan Clark and Captain Paul Horton see out the final three overs.

The two Lightning men pushed them past 200 and close to 230 as they fell short by five runs as they closed on 225 for the loss of seven wickets.

Derbyshire were set a record target of 226 as the hosts run rate was 11.25 meaning it was going to take a colossal effort to see the Falcons win or even get close to that total in fairness, however they got a good start from Wes Durston and Aussie Marcus North as they reached the fifth over of their innings making 50 for no wicket at a rate of 10 runs an over.

Lancashire needed someone to step forward and help break the partnership of the Derbyshire pair and it was star man in most of the victories for the Lightning`s this year, in Pakistan fast bowler Junaid Khan.

This match was the last one he was able to play in for Lancashire before he heads off to Sri Lanka for Pakistan`s upcoming tour there. Some good bowling from Khan saw Durston hit it up and straight down the throat of Wayne White to see him out for a good knock of (30).

Former Lancashire player Gareth Cross returned for the first time since he left in the winter and saw him make (17) before Tom Smith ran him out with a direct hit that saw the Falcons on 83 for 2.

Marcus North was next to go the visitors when Steven Croft trapped him lbw for 41, Wayne Madsen and Billy Godleman then put on a partnership of 41 for the fourth wicket with the Falcons run rate beginning to slow down a tad. Godleman was then given out for (10) as Aaron Liley got him out lbw and saw the Falcons 142 for 4, with 84 runs needed from their remaining five overs.

There hopes started to shorten more, when Madsen went off the last ball of the sixteenth over for (45), with Tom Smith giving White his first wicket of the innings. 

Derbyshire`s run rate was suffering with their known batsmen getting out and despite being bottom of the table they were putting up a great fight to stay in the contest and saw their spirit unable to wilt despite wickets falling throughout.

Junaid Khan clean bowled Alex Hughes for (17) and the Lightning now was sniffing victory well and truly, with the equation for the Falcons needing 56 runs from the remaining 15 balls.

The bowlers in the last few overs had done their job as they restricted the away side to singles or two`s and avoided them getting boundaries or sixes towards the crunch period. 

David Wainwright lasted four balls as he made (2), before White bowled him for his second wicket of the game and had Lancashire now just enjoying themselves for the final over which saw Khan bowl his final over in Lightning`s colours this season and was unable to pick up a wicket in the final over and saw the Falcons finish on 190 for 7.

That score was the highest by an opponent against the hosts this season at home and saw them make a match of it when they could have simply just rolled over from the big total they had to chase.

Lancashire finish off their group next Thursday at the Emirates Old Trafford when they take on the Durham Jets and hope to have Andrew Flintoff back for the final game in the group stage, in what they hope will be a big crowd to too in finishing top.

Lancashire Innings225 for 7 (20.0 overs)

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Smith	c Cork	b Turner	13	6	10	3	0
Prince	c Durston	b North	56	36	29	5	4
Brown	c Durston	b Cork	58	47	34	4	3
Buttler	c Godleman	b Cotton	39	27	23	4	1
Croft	run out (Madsen)		4		2	1	0
Clark	not out		17	24	12	2	0
White	c A Hughes	b Turner	3	3	3	0	0
Lilley	c North	b Turner	0	2	1	0	0
Horton	not out		24	9	7	0	3
Extras	2nb 8w 0b 1lb		11
Total	for 7 (20.0 ovs)		225

Derbyshire Innings190 for 7 (20.0 overs)

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Durston	c White	b Khan	30	21	20	2	3
North	lbw	b Croft	41	42	30	3	1
Cross	run out (Smith)		17	11	10	2	1
Madsen	c Smith	b White	45	28	25	4	1
Godleman	lbw	b Lilley	10	13	9	1	0
A Hughes		b Khan	17	12	9	1	1
Knight	not out		8	19	8	0	0
Wainwright		b White	2	4	3	0	0
Cork	not out		13	7	8	1	0
Extras	4nb 2w 0b 1lb		7
Total	for 7 (20.0 ovs)		190