Loots Bosman rules for Derbyshire but Twenty20 falls flat at Leicester

On a perfect summer's evening a crowd little more than 2,500 was unsatisfactory, Leicestershire's chief executive David Smith acknowledged. With each county now having eight home Twenty20 matches, however, an element of picking and choosing is only to be expected. Derbyshire, a team which fielded only four Englishmen – only one of whom hails from the county – are hardly a cherry in that respect. Those Leicestershire supporters who kept their money in their pockets knew what they were about. After losing by seven wickets to Holland in Sunday's Clydesdale Bank 40, a result that left them bottom of their group, Derbyshire's hopes appeared to rest largely on the arrival of their second overseas signing, Loots Bosman, who had asked for an early release from South Africa's squad touring the West Indies. It was not hard to see why permission was granted. Having landed in England earlier today , Bosman found himself facing the first ball of the match, from Matthew Hoggard. He thick-edged it to third man for a single, which was about the most bat he got on ball in the first four overs, after which he had scored just two. Facing Harry Gurney, a sharp young left-armer, Bosman failed to connect with embarrassing frequency. Gurney did not concede a run off the bat until his third over, when he was slapped through the covers by Chesney Hughes, and Derbyshire finished their power play on a less than impressive score of 23-0. Nothing wrong with the pitch, just swinging and missing. It was the eighth over before Bosman finally timed one of his swipes sufficiently well to reach the boundary, but he began to make up for it by hitting four boundaries in the next over from Andrew McDonald. Having hit Brad Hodge's first ball for a huge six over long-on, Bosman missed his attempt to glide the spinner's fifth delivery through a vacant third man and was bowled for 39. Yet more South Africans, Robin Peterson and Greg Smith, entertained with an array of unorthodox shots and a final total of 165 for five looked competitive. Unlike their opponents, Leicestershire took advantage of the power play to score at close to nine an over. Less commendably they lost three wickets in doing so, including that of the Australian Hodge, who guided a flat pull straight into the hands of Wes Durston at long leg. When the hard-hitting all-rounder James Benning, playing his first match of the season after a long struggle for fitness, was well caught by Tim Groenwald off the bowling of Durston, the Foxes were in deep trouble. Where there is Paul Nixon, however, there is always hope, and together with McDonald, the 39-year-old steered his team past 100 before falling into a trap and reverse-sweeping Smith to Peterson, who had been specifically placed for the shot, for 24. McDonald kept the scoreboard moving, bringing up his half-century with the first of consecutive boundaries cut through gully, but 30 from the final two overs was too steep an ask, though the famously shot-less Hoggard shocked the crowd, and possibly himself, by hitting Smith for six. Steffan Jones, with three for 20, was very much the pick of the home bowlers.