Lancashire Lightning moved top of the T20 Blast North Group with a second victory in 24 hours as they comfortably beat bottom club Derbyshire Falcons at Emirates Old Trafford.
After the hosts posted a solid 178-6, Red Rose bowler Luke Wood took two wickets in the first two balls of a Derbyshire reply that never got out of second gear.
Victory by 42 runs moved Lancashire four points clear of second-placed Durham with five games to go before the quarter-finalists are locked in.
Doomed Derbyshire, meanwhile, already face a scenario where even winning all of their five remaining games might not be enough to progress to the last eight.
In contrast, Lancashire are on a roll having won their past four Blast fixtures and will go into their final five games with a spring in their step aside from Liam Livingstone, who batted with a runner, adding 35 in 22 balls after pulling his hamstring.
The leg spinner did not appear for the second half of the game.
It did not much matter after Wood’s pacey in-swingers delivered the two-wicket burst in the first two deliveries of Derbyshire’s innings, having Caleb Jewell caught at slip and bowling Martin Andersson with a perfect off-stump yorker.
Wayne Madsen briefly threatened to make the match interesting with 53 from 40 balls but when he became the second victim of Chris Green’s second over, the Derbyshire reply rather fizzled out.
Wood, who also took a catch, finished with 3-25 from his four overs.
