Without Andrew Flintoff, Lancashire managed to win six games out of six in the Twenty20 Cup, but last night his first appearance for them in the competition this season coincided with their first defeat. It would be more than a little unfair to cast the England all-rounder as Lancashire's albatross, but he did not have the happiest of times on the day that he was named in England's 16-man Ashes squad.

As Leicestershire made their way to 146 for five, Flintoff conceded 29 from his four overs and failed to take a wicket. Coming in at No 3 in Lancashire's misfiring reply, he drove his fourth ball from Iain O'Brien powerfully straight for four, but the next ball was shorter and quicker and he spliced a pull straight up in the air. His top hand slipped off the handle as he made contact and a small piece of his rubber bat-grip fell to the floor as Wayne White ran in from mid-wicket to take a straightforward catch.

That was one of five wickets for O'Brien, the New Zealand seam bowler, which put Lancashire well behind the clock. They eventually needed 17 from the last over and, although Mark Chilton raised the hopes of a 4,500 sell-out crowd with a straight six off Andrew Harris's first ball, he perished to the next and Lancashire were all out with one ball unused. They remain top of the North Group, while Leicestershire boosted their own hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals with a fourth win in seven matches.

It is now two months since Flintoff played the last of his three games for the Chennai Super Kings, who made him the joint most expensive player in the Indian Premier League when they bid $1.55million (now about £950,000) for his services. He struggled to justify that price tag, conceding 105 runs from 11 overs in his three games and suffering a knee injury in the process, which ruled him out of England's series against West Indies and the World Twenty20.

There was an uncomfortable echo of that stint last night when his second over was hit for 17. He was struck for successive sixes by Jim Allenby, the first a length ball that was pull-driven over mid-on, the next a pick-up over mid-wicket. But Flintoff was not alone in that respect, as Allenby hit four sixes and six fours in a vibrant 45-ball innings of 65, continuing his outstanding record in this competition. Taking his tally to 354 runs from seven innings, Allenby is comfortably the highest run-scorer in this season's Twenty20 Cup, and has also hit the most sixes, 18 and counting.

He gave his side a surging start here, adding 66 in eight overs for the first wicket with Matthew Boyce, but the Foxes faded in the second half of their innings, scoring only 63 from the last ten overs. Stephen Parry, Lancashire's left-arm spinner, took two for 21, including the wicket of Allenby, caught behind off the toe of his bat as he swept from well outside off stump.

Flintoff came back well with the ball, bowling the seventeenth and nineteenth overs and conceding only six runs off the bat. On a good pitch and fast outfield, Leicestershire's total looked far from insurmountable. But once Lancashire had lost Flintoff and Steven Croft, who hit 40 from 25 balls, they were always struggling to catch up.

Leicestershire
M A G Boyce c Horton b Parry 20
J Allenby c Cross b Parry 69
J W A Taylor c Keedy b Chapple 6
†P A Nixon run out 5
*H H Dippenaar c Cross b Chapple 17
J du Toit not out 10
W A White not out 10
Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 3, nb 2) 9
Total (5 wkts, 20 overs) 146
C W Henderson, I E O'Brien, H F Gurney and A J Harris did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-96, 3-104, 4-117, 5-130.
Bowling: Du Plessis 2-0-15-0; Flintoff 4-0-29-0; Chapple 4-0-33-2; Mahmood 3-0-26-0; Keedy 3-0-18-0; Parry 4-0-21-2.

Lancashire
P J Horton c Allenby b O'Brien 5
S J Croft c White b O'Brien 40
A Flintoff c White b O'Brien 5
F du Plessis c Nixon b O'Brien 1
V V S Laxman c Dippenaar b White 18
M J Chilton c White b Harris 34
†G D Cross lbw b Henderson 2
*G Chapple c sub b Henderson 12
S I Mahmood b O'Brien 9
S D Parry c O'Brien b Harris 4
G Keedy not out 0
Extras (lb 1, w 5, nb 2) 8
Total (19.5 overs) 138
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-47, 3-49, 4-58, 5-92, 6-96, 7-114, 8-128, 9-136.
Bowling: Gurney 2-0-23-0; Harris 2.5-0-29-2; O'Brien 4-0-23-5; Allenby 4-0-27-0; Henderson 4-0-20-2; White 3-0-15-1.
Umpires: J W Holder and P J Hartley.