T20 Blast: Derbyshire beat Leicestershire by seven wickets

Derbyshire Falcons took East Midlands bragging rights after successfully chasing down Leicestershire Foxes’ target of 197 in the Vitality T20 Blast at Edgbaston.

The win lifted Falcons off the bottom of North Group although they still need a continuation of their recent improvement to reach the knockout stages after losing five of their seven games thus far.

In the first of two Midlands derbies at Warwickshire’s home ground on Saturday, Foxes opener Sol Budinger’s bludgeoned 49 off just 24 deliveries to help set an imposing target for the bottom side.

When Budinger was eventually dismissed by veteran spin bowler Samit Patel (2-33), the Foxes had rapidly moved to 64-2 at the beginning of the eighth over.

Rehan Ahmed and Shan Masood were dismissed in quick succession by Falcons seamer Pat Brown, who finished with 3-51, but Logan van Beek (26 not out) and Ben Cox (28 not out) put on 55 off the final five overs to hand Derbyshire a tough chase.

In reply, Derbyshire opener Aneurin Donald continued where he left off following Friday’s knock of 73 not out against Nottinghamshire with a terrific 60 to help them race to 80-0 after six overs.

That included the fastest half-century in the club’s history from just 18 balls – beating his own previous record set in last year’s competition.

Leicestershire were given a glimmer of hope when seamer Tom Scriven removed both openers in his first over.

And when Wayne Madsen found Matt Salisbury at deep fine leg for Scriven’s third wicket, Derbyshire were still 43 runs shy of their target with 32 balls remaining.

But a terrific 52 not out off just 32 balls from 40-year-old Patel, accompanied ably by Ross Whiteley (13 not out), helped the Falcons home comfortably with 10 balls to spare to seal back-to-back victories in consecutive days.