WORCESTERSHIRE Royals will be looking to bounce back from their opening Friends Life t20 defeat at Lancashire Lightning when they host Durham Dynamos on Sunday (2.30pm).

After winning their first LV= County Championship Division One match in four years, Worcestershire travelled to Old Trafford full of confidence despite the lack of an overseas player due to a calf injury to Australian Damien Wright and Shakib Al Hasan, who is expected to play against Durham, still in transit.

However, Lancashire secured an eight-run win despite a flurry of boundaries that looked to have the County cruising to victory.

Former Royals star Stephen Moore got the Lightning off to a blistering start before Jack Shantry made the breakthrough for the Royals in the fifth over when Tom Smith hit him to Alexei Kervezee in the deep for 13.

Chris Whelan then reduced the hosts to 45-2 in the following over as Moore slapped the Scouse seamer to captain Daryl Mitchell at mid-off for a 20-ball 28.

But Worcestershire’s spin duet of Moeen Ali and Shaaiq Choudhry pulled it back nicely for Steve Rhodes’ side as they conceded just 49 runs in their eight overs with the former claiming the wickets of Paul Horton and Steve Croft in the 12th over.

Choudhry himself should have had a wicket when Jordan Clark was put down twice in successive balls, by Shantry and then Vikram Solanki, before Gareth Andrew yorked him for 15 to leave Lightning on 124-6.

Prior to that, Solanki saw Gareth Cross dismissed for nine after a stunning catch from his skipper as Lightning went on to close on 154-7.

The Royals got off to a flying start as Moeen struck four successive boundaries before also hitting the next two balls he faced for fours.

But he was trapped lbw by Kyle Hogg for an 11-ball 24, all in fours, in the third over.

Considering Lancashire only hit 13 fours in their 20 overs, the Royals had plundered 12 in the opening five, but that was to be their last until the penultimate over.

Yet, after their flying start, Worcestershire lost wickets on a regular basis and danger men Solanki (13), Kervezee (21), James Cameron (9) and 17-year-old Aneesh Kapil (8) were all back in the pavilion as the Royals went from 56-1 to 83-5.

Mitchell (22) and on-loan wicketkeeper Ben Scott (6) tried to repair the damage but, once the gloveman had departed following a fine stumping by Cross, for six off the impressive Gary Keedy (3-14), the Royals were left trying to hang on.

While they saw out the allotted overs, they fell eight runs short on 146-9 with Choudhry unbeaten on 26.