AN excellent 131-run partnership between Graeme Hick and Ben Smith kept Worcestershire's hopes of reaching the semi-final stage of the Friends Provident Trophy alive.

The two middle-order stalwarts came together with the hosts on 70-3 chasing Derbyshire's 199-6 and they called upon their considerable experience to see the County home with 11 overs and seven wickets to spare.

Hick finished unbeaten on 65, while Smith, who has been desperately out of form in recent weeks, will have been glad to spend time in the middle as he ended on 66 not out.

Hick brought up his 50 with successive drives to the cover boundary off Greg Smith before Smith completed his half-century in the following over. Hick faced 81 balls, hitting six fours and one maximum, while former captain Smith received 78 balls, of which he despatched six to the boundary.

Smith said: "The win was fantastic for us and we'll take the confidence boost into our next games. We can use this as a real platform to build on and it will hopefully give us some momentum to take into our Championship game on Thursday and turn that competition around a bit as well.

"We've put in some good performances as individuals this season but we haven't done it in partnerships. When you bat in partnerships you can take the pressure off each other and, if you're canny enough, you can half the pressure on yourself. That's what Hicky and I did.

"Derby will possibly go home and think they haven't bowled well enough to win the game because I think 200 could have been defendable on this pitch."

Derbyshire captain and Australian Test batsman Simon Katich won the toss and surprisingly elected to bat despite a hint of moisture in the New Road pitch.

The County bowling unit gave little away and restricted the Phantoms to a below-par total. The visitors lost Travis Birt with the score on just 10 when he fenced a Nadeem Malik delivery to Hick at second slip, but Greg Smith put on 41 for the second wicket with former Worcestershire opener Phil Weston.

Left-hander Weston anchored the visitor's innings, top-scoring with 78.

For Worcestershire, Stephen Moore's lean spell continued as he was leg-before to Graham Wagg first ball, but Phil Jaques (20) and Vikram Solanki (39) both got good starts.

However, after the visitors had claimed their three wickets, Hick and Smith took control and saw Worcestershire comfortably to their second victory in the competition this year.