Lancashire 182 for 2 beat Unicorns 179 by eight wickets
Scorecard

Lancashire cruised to an eight-wicket win over Unicorns to pick up only their third Clydesdale Bank 40 victory of the season.

After bowling Unicorns out for 179, Junaid Khan claiming four wickets, Lancashire reached their victory target with a massive 12 overs to spare, finishing on 182 for 2 at the Colwyn Bay Cricket Club Ground.

Captain Steven Croft led the way with an unbeaten 59 off 51 balls for Lancashire while there were good contributions from Karl Brown (42 not out) and openers Stephen Moore (40) and Tom Smith (35).

Lancashire move onto seven points with the win - four points behind joint Group C leaders Somerset and Essex - while winless Unicorns remain bottom of the standings with just one point from nine games.

The part-timers, having won the toss and opted to bat, looked on course for a challenging total as they 75 without loss in the 14th over. However, Lancashire started their fightback by claiming the important wicket of Unicorns opener Michael Thornely, who had struck nine fours in a 38-ball 47 before he was caught by Paul Horton off the bowling of Stephen Parry.

Thornely`s opening partner James Campbell then fell soon after for a patient 26, and although Josh Knappett (42) and Luis Reece (19) helped take the score up to 114 for two, the wheels then quickly came off for Unicorns. Aside from the top four, only Amar Rashid (10) and Dan Wheeldon (14) managed to get into double figures as Unicorns lost their final eight wickets for 65 runs.

Pakistan paceman Junaid was the pick of the Lancashire attack as he finished with figures of four for 29 off 7.3 overs - all four victims being bowled - while Simon Kerrigan took two for 21 off eight. Lancashire made short work of their reply with all of their top four finding the boundary with regularity.

Moore clubbed two sixes and four fours as he shared an opening stand of 58 with Smith (six fours and a six), and a 31-run second-wicket partnership with Croft.

The departure of Moore brought Brown to the wicket and he combined with skipper Croft for an unbroken 93-run stand, the pair finishing with 10 fours and four sixes between them as Lancashire ran out comfortable winners.