GARETH Andrew’s third half-century of this year’s Friends Life t20 campaign was not enough to prevent Worcestershire Royals falling to their first home defeat of the season to fellow high-fliers Leicestershire Foxes.

The New Road side were hoping to leap-frog the Grace Road men into second place and put themselves in pole position for a home quarter-final.

But, despite Andrew’s unbeaten 54, the Foxes, who saw off Worcestershire by 19 runs last Saturday, easily chased down their 131-run target.

Royals were restricted to 130-7, leaving their hopes of a home tie in the last eight severely dented.

After slumping to 64-6 with 11 overs gone, Worcestershire needed Andrew to play with a cool head and he did just that.

The Royals looked like they could record their lowest ever Twenty20 score but his half-century made sure there would not be a repeat of the 86 all out against Northamptonshire at New Road in 2006.

Worcestershire lost Vikram Solanki without scoring in the first over when he edged an unplayable ball from Harry Gurney behind to Paul Nixon.

Moeen Ali went for just eight, while Alexei Kervezee also failed to deliver before James Cameron was left stranded by Shakib Al Hasan as he was run out for a duck.

The Bangladesh all-rounder has yet to register a decent score in the t20 this term and tonight was no different as he hit Matthew Hoggard, who finished with impressive figures of 2-13, to former County academy youngster James Taylor at point.

When Andrew McDonald bowled skipper Daryl Mitchell for 18, Worcestershire were reeling at 64-6.

But Andrew and wicketkeeper Ben Scott put together a useful 60-run seventh wicket stand off nine overs before the on-loan latter was run out for 22 in the final over.

The 27-year-old all-rounder then went on to reach his 50 off 44 balls, hitting four fours, as he helped Worcestershire close on 130-7.

After a disappointing first over from Jack Shantry, the left-arm medium pace bowler made the breakthrough in the third over as Josh Cobb skied him to Solanki for 10.

Then a fine diving catch from 17-year-old Aneesh Kapil accounted for Jacques Du Toit to reduce the Foxes to 34-2 in the sixth over.

Saaed Ajmal claimed the wicket of Will Jefferson in the 13th over but Australian McDonald’s fifth half-century of the tournament helped steer his side to a six-wicket victory with 15 balls to spare.

Following this defeat, Steve Rhodes’ side will be looking to bounce back on Sunday (2.30pm) when they make the long trek north to face Durham Dynamos.