Leicestershire implode for 89 as Shan Masood fifty sets up Derbyshire

Derbyshire Falcons picked up their first win of the Vitality Blast campaign as Leicestershire Foxes crashed to a second heavy defeat.

Pakistan opener Shan Masood made 53, sharing what proved to be the key partnership of the innings with Leus du Plooy, who hit an unbeaten 38 as the Falcons posted 159 from their 20 overs after being asked to bat first on the pitch on which Durham made a winning score of 184 for 8 on Thursday.

Leicestershire fancied they could go close but on what proved to be a difficult surface to score fluently they stumbled to 47 for 4 in the powerplay and never recovered as the Falcons bowlers kept the pressure on throughout, dismissed for 89 to go down by a 70-run margin. Legspinner Mattie McKiernan's 2 for 17 was the pick of some miserly Falcons bowling figures.

The Foxes lost Scott Steel, recalled in place of Louis Kimber, when he was bowled by a full delivery from Hayden Kerr, the Australian left-armer who has replaced the injured Suranga Lakmal, and Hamish Rutherford, out first ball on his debut on Thursday, perished in the second over, leg before to Wayne Madsen.

Madsen produced a wonderful piece of fielding to run out Arron Lilley with a direct hit running in from point before Colin Ackermann sliced Sam Conners to backward point.

Lewis Hill was run out by wicketkeeper Brooke Guest before Rishi Patel was leg before to McKiernan. Foxes tried to hit their way out of trouble but Rehan Ahmed succeeded only in picking out mid-off. Callum Parkinson became a second victim for McKiernan before Mark Watt, the left-arm spinner, picked up a deserved scalp, turning one past Roman Walker's bat. Kerr picked up his second wicket to finish the job as Naveen-ul-Haq skied to mid-off.

Having gone close to chasing down 200 against Birmingham Bears on Friday, Falcons had begun confidently. They lost Luis Reece, bowled behind his legs by Walker, and Harry Came, caught at backward point off the last ball of the opening six overs, but had 52 runs from the powerplay.

Falcons slipped to 77 for 4 after Wayne Madsen was bowled swinging fulsomely at Ben Mike and Guest, after his half-century the night before, saw his off stump knocked back as he made room to cut Callum Parkinson.

But Masood, prolific in the Championship, completed his first Blast half-century soon after ending a seven-over boundary drought with a couple off Naveen, and du Plooy, having driven Parkinson down the ground for four, cleverly ramped Steel off the back of his bat. The pair had added 51 in 26 balls when Masood sliced the same bowler straight to short third man.

du Plooy and Kerr managed to eke out another 31 in the last four overs. Kerr drove Walker to the straight boundary and du Plooy picked up a fourth boundary with another innovative shot over the keeper's head. Foxes looked happy to have kept Falcons below 160 but in the event they had more than enough.