NatWest T20 Blast: Derbyshire downed again

Ben Cotton conceded 49 in his 4 overs

(Scores: Lancashire Lightning – 225/7; Derbyshire Falcons – 190/7)

It was always unlikely that we would give a Lancashire side that was close to full strength a close game tonight, but, all things considered, a young Derbyshire side acquitted itself fairly well.A young attack took some stick from a powerful batting line up that got off to the ideal start through Ashwell Prince, but they stuck to their task well, and it was only the last couple of overs, when Lancashire scored 35 runs, that took the score outwith any realistic hopes we may have held by that stage.Nonetheless it was good experience for young bowlers in front of a large partisan crowd, and they will learn from it. If nothing else, Ben Cotton and Greg Cork now know things that they have to work on over the winter to be better at the requisite skills another year.The batting could easily have collapsed after the home side's assault, but, to their credit, we gave a good account of ourselves and managed not far short of 10 an over. We again made decent use of the Powerplay, and, having been critical of this area of our game in early season, I will accept that improvements have been made. The effect of these on our final total, as in the last game, is patently obvious.With the championship game against Glamorgan starting at Derby on Sunday, Graeme Welch rightly decided to rest his seamers from yesterday's success at Cheltenham, and that decision will hopefully pay dividends in due course.More on that game tomorrow. Tonight was another T20 defeat in a horrible season, even by our standards, for that competition. Yet in adversity there were glimpses of lessons being learned and improvements made.That's all we can hope for at this stage.