Tom Lungley returned his best figures as Derbyshire easily beat Essex by 67 runs with 9.4 overs to spare at Derby.

Batting was never easy on a sluggish pitch that helped the seamers and Essex fell well short of Derbyshire's total of 198-6.

Lungley took 4-28 in seven overs, three of them lbw, as the Essex middle order folded and although Ronnie Irani top scored with 35, his side were always second best.

Rob Bailey, who was dropped at backward-point by skipper Ronnie Irani on 41, made 94, his best one-day score for the county, was the cornerstone of the Derbyshire innings and set a target which was always going to be difficult in the conditions.

There was a lot of playing and missing as the seamers found some movement and Essex never recovered from losing two wickets in the opening five overs.

Darren Robinson played some attacking strokes but was Lungley's first victim when he pushed forward and was lbw for 27.

Lungley won two more lbw appeals from umpire Ray Julian who raised the finger again to give Andrew McGarry out for a duck and end the contest.

Derbyshire had also started badly when Michael Di Venuto carved to third man but Bailey and Luke Sutton added 95 for the third wicket in 23 overs to put the home side on course for a challenging score.

Bailey faced 155 balls and was out to the last ball of the innings aiming a big hit at Ashley Cowan but his batting had laid the foundations for Derbyshire's second National League win of the season.

© CricInfo