MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire vs Hampshire
Following a three-week gap for the start of the Vitality Blast, Championship cricket returns briefly to the calendar as Lancashire bid to claim a first victory of the summer at the sixth attempt against a Hampshire side sat joint second in the table.
Lancashire vs Hampshire
LV= Insurance County Championship, Division One
Sunday June 11 - Wednesday June 14, 2023, 11am
Southport and Birkdale Cricket Club, Trafalgar Road
It hasn’t been the start that Lancashire were hoping for in Division One, with five successive draws coming amidst some near misses, flat pitches and stubborn resistance.
Results haven’t reflected performance from the Red Rose. But that’s sport.
And results do need to come if the side is to mount a title challenge through the second half of the summer.
Champions Surrey lead the way on 104 points with four wins from six games.
Warwickshire are second on 79 from five, level with Hampshire, who have played six with three wins. Lancashire are eighth in the table on 46 points from five.
This game comes on the back of a mixed start in the T20 Blast, with four wins and four defeats from eight games. An outground win will do wonders for both competitions.
In Lancashire’s last Championship match, in mid-May, they drew with Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford.
Opposition
Hampshire are challenging again. Captain James Vince and co are currently sat in the position they finished last season’s Division One campaign in, third.
Like Lancashire last season, Hampshire showed incredible consistency, challenging for all three pieces of silverware, including a triumph in the Vitality Blast.
They are there are thereabouts again in the Championship following wins over Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire twice. The two wins over Northants have come by an innings, including last time out midway through last month.
Vince is closing in on 500 Championship runs for 2023. His haul of 477 is currently the third best in Division One.
Pakistani overseas seamer Mohammad Abbas is the joint second most prolific bowler in the competition with 29.
Opposing player to watch
If Lancashire can get James Vince out cheaply twice in this match, you feel they will have a great chance of winning this fixture.
The England fringe batter with 55 international caps to his name, including 13 in Test Matches, is a talismanic figure for his county. He is as elegant a batter as there is in English Cricket.
If things don’t go well for the Red Rose at Southport, Vince, 32, could well reach 12,000 first-class career runs. This will be his 196th career appearance.
Vince is having a stunning season.
Allied to his aforementioned Championship runs, he has posted - at time of writing - five scores of 50 or more in seven Blast innings, with two scores of 88 not out, a 103, 71 not out and 50.
Previous meeting
Lancashire and Hampshire only met once in the Championship last season - a rain-affected draw at the Ageas Bowl in late April and early May.
Ball dominated bat in the first innings, with Hampshire bowled out for 246 on day one before claiming a first-innings lead of six.
Nick Gubbins made a patient unbeaten 101 for the hosts, while Hasan Ali claimed 5-45 for Lancashire, who then recovered from 105-7 to 240 all out thanks to Phil Salt’s 55 and Tom Bailey’s 59. They shared a crucial 94 for the eighth wicket.
Left-handed Gubbins, from number three, then scored another patient century in the second innings - 130 in 344 all out, with the Red Rose set 351 to win late on day three.
Unfortunately, with Lancashire due to start day four on 9-0, an intriguing finish was ruined by the weather as the final day was wiped out.
How’s Stat
Last year at Southport, in the draw against Somerset, Keaton Jennings posted the fourth highest individual score in Lancashire’s first-class history - a brilliant first-innings 318 opening the batting.
Two of Lancashire’s top 10 highest individual scores in first-class cricket have come at Southport. In 2001, also against Somerset, John Crawley hit an unbeaten 281.