Springbok sprint sees Lancashire home (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

Springbok sprint sees Lancashire home

1:16pm Monday 1st June 2009

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South Africans Francois du Plessis and Ashwell Prince shared an unbeaten stand of 104 off 65 balls to steer Lancashire Lightning to a seven-wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes at Grace Road and maintain their 100 per cent record in the Twenty20 Cup.

With man of the match Du Plessis hammering a brilliant 78, Lancashire comfortably reached their target of 148 with 21 balls to spare to make it four wins in a row in the North Division.

An excellent 71 by James Allenby helped the Foxes recover after a slow start and post a total of 147 for three.

But on an easy-paced pitch Lancashire made light work of the chase despite losing two wickets in an over early in their innings.

Paceman Harry Gurney claimed them both by dismissing Tom Smith to a one-handed catch at cover by Allenby and then Paul Horton who was superbly taken by wicketkeeper Paul Nixon.

That had Lancashire in some trouble at 37 for two in the fourth over and when Steven Croft was brilliantly run out by James Taylor with the score at 47 in the sixth over the Foxes had a sniff of a victory chance.

But their hopes were ruthlessly rubbed out with a magnificent partnership between the South African duo of Du Plessis and Prince.

They began carefully to rebuild the innings but then pressed their foot on the accelerator to step up the rate and race to victory.

Du Plessis was in magnificent form reaching his 50 off 37 balls with seven fours and two sixes and finished unbeaten on 78 off just 49 balls.

Prince played a more subdued role in the match-winning stand, making 29 off 22 deliveries as the Leicestershire attack toiled in vain.

Du Plessis finished the game off in style with three successive boundaries off Wayne White at the start of the 17th over to keep Lancashire in pole position to top the group.

The Red Rose stars now turn their attentions to tomorrow’s Old Trafford clash with Derbyshire Phantoms.

They also face Durham Dynamos at Old Trafford on Thursday before returning to County Championship action with a four day game against Somerset starting on Saturday.

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