BOTTOM of the table Leicestershire won their first Royal London One-Day Cup match since August 2014, hammering Lancashire by 131 runs at a startled but delighted Fischer County Ground.

Fine innings by Mark Pettini and Mark Cosgrove, and List A career-best bowling from Neil Dexter, were the highlights of an extraordinary match.

The result has probably ended Lancashire’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals with Lowerhouse professional Dieter Klein taking two wickets on debut for Leicestershire.

The home side made 307-8 batting first with Pettini making 92 and Cosgrove 91. Chorley's Tom Smith impressed with the ball, removing both openers as he finished with 2-49.

In reply Smith made a fine 56 at the top of the order but when he was third man out Lancashire began to lose their way.

They went from 96-3 to 176 all out with only Liam Livingstone able to add support with 28.

Klein finished with figures of 2-38 for the Foxes as he took the final wicket of Tom Moores to close the innings.

It was a disappointing evening for Lancashire skipper Steven Croft.

He said: "It was a very disappointing game with bat and ball – they got too many runs and it wasn’t a very good chase.

"After a good start we lost a few wickets and seemed to panic. They had the bowlers to suit the wicket, taking the pace off made it tough, and maybe we should have thought about that when we bowled.

“We’ve had games in this competition when we’ve played well, but we haven’t strung wins together.

"We’re a better side than the results show, but we need people to stand up with both bat and ball, because we took a backward step.

"You don’t mind going down fighting, but there was a lack of discipline out there.”