CARL HOOPER destroyed Derbyshire and dazzled Old Trafford with his most spectacular innings yet for Lancashire last night.

If Freddie Flintoff’s memorable century at Lord’s on Saturday finally justified the comparisons with Ian Botham, then Hooper sent the older members of an 8,500 crowd away into the sticky Manchester night recalling memories of his fellow Guyanian and ex-West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd.

Just as Big Clive used to do, Cool Carl relished the big-match atmosphere, giving the crowd exactly what they wanted by sealing Lancashire’s seventh successive National League win with a six off Derbyshire skipper Dominic Cork.

Team effort

That was Hooper’s fourth maximum and took him to 79 off only 69 balls. It means he has now scored 455 one-day runs for Lancashire at an average of more than 60, as well as 558 at 60-odd in the Championship. Throw in his bowling, with a handy spell of three for 30 last night putting the brakes on Derbyshire, and Lancashire have come up with a pretty handy replacement for Harbhajan Singh.

But manager Mike Watkinson was keen to stress this wasn’t a one-man show, as Lancashire extended their lead at the top of the Second Division to six points - with Hampshire beating Scottish Saltires to climb above Northants and Middlesex into second.

"Don’t forget Mal Loye," he said, after the former Northants opener matched Hooper with his fifth one-day half century for Lancashire - albeit in a very different style. Loye didn’t exactly dawdle, but he was still outscored by Hooper and earlier Stuart Law, who continued his superb run with 39 from 35 balls in a second wicket stand of 73.

But Loye ended unbeaten on 62, taking his tally of one-day runs for the season beyond 500, and Watkinson stressed: "He did a very important job in seeing off the new ball and holding the innings together so that people could entertain at the other end."

Return to form

Earlier Chris Schofield had teamed up with Hooper to restrict Derbyshire to a much lower total than had seemed likely when they reached 155 for four. Schofield claimed the key wicket of Mohammad Kaif, caught and bowled off a ball that turned after stroking a classy 70, and ended with two for 21 from six overs - a welcome return to form after his unhappy time in the televised Championship match at Blackpool, which should do his confidence the world of good.

Watkinson revealed that Schofield, Alec Swann, Kyle Hogg, Mark Currie and Stephen Crook have all been selected in a strong second team for a game against Glamorgan this week to give them a chance to stake a last claim for a place in the C&G semi final at Worcester next Saturday.

Worcester have been boosted by the news that their South African all-rounder Andrew Hall will be available for the semi after being released from international duty, while Lancashire will definitely have Flintoff and James Anderson back. And after three wins in as many days, they couldn’t go into the big game in better shape