LANCASHIRE'S Steven Croft has warned his side not to rely on overseas star Martin Guptil after the Red Rose lost their second straight T20 Blast match on Friday night.

Guptil made 72 on debut for the home side at Old Trafford but received little help from elsewhere and Durham cantered to their target of 149 to win by six wickets.

The result means Ashley Giles' men have started the defence of the trophy they won last year with two defeats.

And Croft wants to see an improvement with the bat.

"I thought Martin played a gem of an innings but we didn’t bat round him," said Croft.

"It was going to be tough to defend 149 but we didn’t look like getting a wicket in those first six overs.

"We needed two or three wickets but we didn’t get them and our skills weren’t there.

"Martin is a game changer but we can’t rely on him every week."

Guptill made 72 off 46 balls but the New Zealand opener’s efforts were rather eclipsed by his Jets counterpart Phil Mustard, whose 46 off 18 balls included five fours and three sixes and put his side on course to overhaul Lightning’s plainly inadequate 149-8.

Graham Clark then took up where Mustard had left off and made 36 off 27 balls as the Jets romped home with five overs to spare.

And the result left Croft angry at the manner of his side's defeat.

"That was very disappointing, to be polite about it," he said of the performance.

"There was no real fight from us again. We were short with the bat and didn’t start well with the ball and you’re never going to win too many games of T20 (like that) really.

"After the Powerplay we were going nicely but we’d lost three wickets.

"We lost three wickets and then we lost Martin Guptill at a bad time. We didn’t build for the closing overs.

"It was a disappointing middle and end to the innings and we didn’t take any momentum in with the ball. We lost it in the first six overs really."