MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire Lightning v Northamptonshire Steelbacks
Lancashire face a last group game shootout with Northamptonshire for a home quarter-final.
Lancashire Lightning v Northamptonshire Steelbacks, sponsored by C&C Insurance.
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday July 19, 2024, 7pm
Emirates Old Trafford
The winner will secure a top-two finish in the North and will thus play at home in the last eight come early September. Should there not be a winner - ie, a rainy No Result or a tie - Lancashire would prevail because a point would be enough.
The Lightning can also still finish top of the group.
The current state of play at the top of the North Group is as follows: Birmingham lead the way on 18 points after 13 games, Lancashire are second on 17 after the same number and Northamptonshire sit third on 16 from 13.
Northamptonshire secured their quarter-final place with a home win over Birmingham at Wantage Road last night. Had they lost that game, Lancashire would have been assured of a top-two finish.
If the Lightning win tonight and Birmingham fail to beat Leicestershire at Edgbaston, Keaton Jennings and company would advance as the winners of the North. The same would apply if Lancashire get a point and Bears lose because the two teams' net run-rate is almost identical.
Northamptonshire successfully defended their 197-6 last night, underpinned by a superb 86 off 41 balls from Saif Zaib, including six sixes. The Bears recovered from 0-2 to keep the game alive and finish on 186-6.
Opposition
Champions in 2013 and 2016, runners-up in 2015, Northamptonshire are in the mix for a third title.
The Steelbacks finished sixth in last season’s North Group. In fact, they missed out on a place in the quarter-finals in six of the last seven seasons before this campaign, which sees them three wins away from another triumph.
Captained by former England all-rounder David Willey and coached by John Sadler, like Lancashire they have employed a trio of overseas players during this ongoing campaign.
South African opening batter Matthew Breetzke has been with them for the duration of the North Group campaign, while spin-bowling all-rounders Sikander Raza (Zimbabwe) and Ashton Agar (South Africa) have started and finished the group stage respectively.
Breetzke is their leading run-scorer with 384 and left-arm pacer Willey their leading wicket-taker with 13.
Opposition player to watch
South African overseas opener Matthew Breetzke is closing in on 400 runs for the competition. It has been an impressive introduction to county cricket for 25-year-old right-hander, who has played six T20Is for his country.
He is in line for a Test debut having been called into the Proteas squad for next month’s tour of the West Indies.
Breetzke has scored 16 fifties with a best of 94 in 95 career appearances.
He is a batter with immense power, one who has impressed in the first couple of seasons of the SAT20 competition in his homeland.
That career best of 94 actually came for the Steelbacks in their away win over Derbyshire earlier in the competition.
Previous meeting
The reverse fixture between these two, at Wantage Road at the start of the month, was abandoned without a ball bowled.
We have to go back to last season for the last meeting between the two counties.
In 2023, the Lightning completed the double over the Steelbacks. They won at Wantage Road by 35 runs in mid-June defending a total of 204-7, with Steven Croft scoring his one and only T20 century.
In the return fixture at Emirates Old Trafford, in early July, Lancashire won by six wickets chasing 139, with Luke Wood and Phil Salt to the fore.
Pacer Wood returned an excellent 3-17 from his four overs as Northamptonshire scrambled to 138-7. Australian opener Chris Lynn top-scored with 35.
In reply, Lightning didn’t have it all their only way. They slipped to 38-2 in the fifth over, but Salt’s presence was crucial, and he hit four sixes in 74 not out off 51 balls, sealing victory with 3.2 overs to spare.
What they said
Fortress Emirates Old Trafford. As Luke Wood says: “Our record speaks for itself.”
Lancashire have won their last 15 group matches at Headquarters and, overall, are unbeaten in 26 group fixtures at this venue since the end of the 2020 season.
Their only defeat at EOT in that time was last season’s quarter-final against Surrey.
You can see why they have their hearts set on a home tie in September’s last eight.
“Bar the blip against Surrey last year, we’re pretty a full house aren’t we,” said Wood, who starred in Wednesday’s win over Nottinghamshire with an excellent 3-23.
“We love playing here, and the crowd gets behind us.
“We just know how to win games of cricket here, which is the most important thing.
“We’re going into the Northamptonshire game on a high, and we’re playing the team we need to play to come first or second. It should be good.
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. If we can put another good win in on Friday, it sets you up. We’d then be coming back here for the quarter-final on the back of two wins.”
How’s Stat!
Lancashire have a perfect seven wins from seven record in home matches against Northamptonshire, all played at Emirates Old Trafford. That’s since 2010 when the competition became two groups of nine, North and South.
Before then, the Lightning and the Steelbacks didn’t meet because they were in the North and Midlands Groups respectively.
Added to that, there was one match abandoned without a ball bowled at EOT in 2016.