Falcons' flying start in chase bags another win

DERBYSHIRE Falcons completed back-to-back Vitality Blast derby wins in 24 hours with a seven-wicket victory over Leicestershire Foxes at Edgbaston.

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The Foxes were lifted to a hefty 196 for five by an impressive collective effort headed by Sol Budinger 49 (24) and Shan Masood (43, 26). Pat Brown took three for 51.

But the Falcons chased it down with 10 balls to spare, reaching 197 for three as Aneurin Donald launched the chase with an explosive 60 from 25 balls and Samit Patel crowned it with an unbeaten 52 from 32.

Having belatedly opened their Blast account at the sixth attempt against Notts Outlaws on Friday night, suddenly the Falcons are flying and right back in contention for qualification.

Donald said: "It is usually a pretty good wicket here and with the dimensions of the ground we thought we could chase anything.

"I didn’t think we bowled badly. There was the odd over or two that got away from us but we thought it was around a par score and if we got off to a tidy start we could chase it down.