MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire v Warwickshire
Lancashire are up and running in this season’s Championship, clinching their first win of 2024 in some style against Durham at Blackpool on Monday.
Lancashire v Warwickshire
Vitality County Championship, Division One
Friday May 24 - Monday May 27, 2024, 11am
Emirates Old Trafford
A dominant performance from start to finish, led by twin centuries for captain Keaton Jennings, seven wickets for the excellent Tom Aspinwall and finished off by four wickets for George Balderson, ensured Ben Stokes’ return to county cricket was an unhappy one.
Durham were beaten by 60 runs as they gave chasing a final day target of 475 a real crack.
Now, the buoyant Red Rose could do with giving the Bears a mauling at Emirates Old Trafford this weekend!
They are certainly well placed to do so following a confidence boosting performance full of vim and vigour by the seaside, one which has left them within striking distance of mid-table. Despite remaining bottom of the table after six games, on 53 points, they are only 15 points adrift of fourth-placed Nottinghamshire.
Lancashire now face a fifth-placed Warwickshire side who are winless in six matches, their second defeat - added to four draws - coming on Monday against Essex at Chelmsford.
That will have been a particularly galling result for captain Alex Davies given they had claimed a first-innings lead of 235 but ended up failing to defend a target of 330.
This is Lancashire’s seventh match of the season, marking the halfway stage in Division One. It’s also the last before the break to play the first half of the Vitality Blast, which starts next week.
Opposition:
It hasn’t been the easiest of starts to the season for either of these two counties, the pair sharing five defeats so far.
For Warwickshire, they have had availability issues to contend with.
Star batter Sam Hain has only played two games for personal reasons, while Pakistani overseas fast bowler Hassan Ali - the ex-Lancashire quick - has had to cut short his stay at Edgbaston having gained unexpected selection for the forthcoming T20 World Cup.
Injuries to seamers such as Aamir Jamal, Chris Rushworth, Liam Norwell, Craig Miles and Michael Booth, added to spinner Danny Briggs, has been an obvious issue.
It forced them to sign New Zealander Michael Rae, a tall fast bowler, at short notice ahead of last week’s defeat to Essex.
Captained by in-form ex-Lancashire wicketkeeper-batter Alex Davies, the Bears will hope for a pick-me-up at EOT this weekend in the form of a first win.
They are coached by Mark Robinson, while former New Zealand international all-rounder Gavin Larsen is their director of cricket.
Opposition player to watch:
Rob Yates is having a fabulous season for Warwickshire, both with bat and ball.
The left-handed opener, 24, is an Edgbaston Academy product and has scored 506 runs in six Championship matches added to 14 wickets with his off-spin.
With his off-spin, he is their third leading run-scorer behind captain Alex Davies (528) and Ed Barnard (521) and their second leading wicket-taker behind Ollie Hannon-Dalby (15).
Yates has a top-score of 191 to his name already this season, in a home draw against Durham, and accruing it off 205 balls with five sixes shows an attacking side to his game.
However, it his bowling which has really caught the eye this summer given he only started 2024 with eight first-class wicket in 56 appearances under his belt.
He has claimed 14 in six this term, including a pair of four-wicket hauls.
In late September 2021, Yates scored 113 for the Bears against Lancashire at Lord’s in the Bob Willis Trophy final. His county won that game by an innings.
Previous meeting:
These two sides only met once in last season’s Championship, a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston in late July - a clash Lancashire had much the better of and were denied the chance of victory by wet weather on the final day.
George Balderson’s middle order unbeaten 116 underpinned the Red Rose’s sturdy first-innings 327 all out before he was one of four bowlers who struck twice in limiting Warwickshire to 212 all out.
Lancashire then built on their 115-run lead with 182-6, including an unbeaten 64 for captain Keaton Jennings and 46 for Balderson, who clearly had an excellent game.
Unfortunately, however, with a lead of 297 heading into day four, the rain arrived to deny Jennings, Balderson and co the chance of a victory.
What they said:
The contributions of captain Keaton Jennings with a pair of centuries and 20-year-old Tom Aspinwall with his first seven wickets in first-class cricket may have stood out more in Lancashire’s win at Blackpool, which concluded on Monday.
But four wickets for George Balderson late in the afternoon on day four proved to be the victory clincher.
Durham were 380-5 in the 84th over chasing that 475. With centurion Ollie Robinson unbeaten en-route to 171, the visitors were very much in the hunt. Maybe they were marginal favourites.
However, Balderson shone with the new ball, and ousted Graham Clark, Paul Coughlin, Ben Raine and Matthew Parkinson to give Lancashire a famous seaside win.
Now he wants the county to build on the momentum when they return to Headquarters to face Warwickshire.
“Confidence is a massive thing,” said Balderson, the former England Under 19s captain.
“As a young group, we now know what it takes to win a game.
“We’ve put it together for four days, and the challenge now is to go and do it again at Emirates Old Trafford this week.
“Even though we won at Blackpool, because we’ve been so poor for the first four weeks, we need to find a way to get ourselves out of the bit of trouble that we’re in.
“Now it’s about backing it up.
“I’m sure that if we carry on playing like we did (against Durham), we’ll be able to do that.”
How’s Stat!
Nathan Lyon is just seven wickets away from 800 in his first-class career.
Lancashire’s overseas Australian off-spinner sits on 793 from 217 matches since debuting in early 2011. His wickets have come at 32.29 apiece, with 30 hauls of five wickets or more.
He has taken 18 wickets in five Championship appearances for the Red Rose, with the most recent win over Durham his most productive fixture with six wickets - 4-59 in the first innings and 2-95 in the second.
If Lyon claims his first five-wicket haul in Lancashire colours against Warwickshire, you would have to suspect that this will be the match he reaches 800.