Derbs ride on another Madsen ton

Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen struck his second successive Royal London Cup century to lead the Falcons to a seven-wicket victory against Leicestershire at Grace Road.

Madsen, who scored 138 in the win over Hampshire on Saturday, hit an unbeaten 105 as Derbyshire successfully chased down their target of 249 with 4.5 overs to spare. Shivnarine Chanderpaul made an unbeaten 52 and shared a match-winning fourth-wicket partnership of 128 in 22 overs.

The Foxes were restricted to 248 for 8 in their 50 overs, Matt Boyce top scoring with 64. Derbyshire left-arm seamer Mark Footitt took 5 for 59, but the Foxes also suffered a major blow when their captain, Josh Cobb, was struck on the right hand by a lifting delivery from Footitt in the eighth over and had to retire hurt.

Wes Durston and Billy Godleman shared an opening stand of 62 for the Falcons before two wickets fell in successive overs. Durston had his middle stump uprooted by Charlie Shreck for 30 and Scott Elstone was bowled by Nathan Buck.

Godleman and Madsen added 60 for the third wicket before the former came down the pitch to Jigar Naik and was deceived by the flight and bowled for 43. But the Foxes could do little to halt the progress of the magnificent Madsen and the experienced Chanderpaul. Madsen reached his 50 off 49 balls and then stepped on the accelerator reaching his century off 93 balls with 13 fours.

It was Chanderpaul however, who hit the winning runs with a boundary off the first ball of the 46th over bowled by Naik.

The start of the game was delayed for an hour after Derbyshire players were held up by traffic jams and diversions following a fatal accident that closed the south-bound carriageway of the M1. But the difficulties in reaching the ground did not impact on their performance on the field.

With Footitt claiming five wickets, Derbyshire took a firm grip on the game. Footitt had already picked up the wicket of Angus Robson, caught low down at slip, and then went on to to remove Boyce, who had been the Foxes best batsman with five fours in his 83-ball innings.

Niall O'Brien was another Footitt victim, trapped lbw for 28 while Greg Smith had been run out for 36 with a direct hit from Elstone at cover. That ended a stand of 72 for the second wicket with Boyce. Only an unbeaten 36 off 30 balls by Naik gave the Foxes any sort of total to defend - but it was nowhere near enough.

Derbyshire's performance director Graeme Welch was pleased with his side's performance and praised Madsen, saying: "We bowled very well to keep them 30 or 40 runs short. Then Wayne Madsen came in and played another top innings."

Meanwhile, Cobb reflected on his injury after the match and said: "I think I may have broken a bone in my hand and I am going for an X-ray on Monday."