MATCH PREVIEW: Leicestershire Foxes v Lancashire Lightning
New-look team, same old Lancashire. The Lightning are there and thereabouts once again in the Vitality Blast.
Leicestershire Foxes v Lancashire Lightning
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday June 14, 2024, 6.30pm
The Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road
Shorn of some experience and star quality because of the ongoing T20 World Cup, the team has a number of new and young faces in it. But they have slotted in seamlessly to put in an excellent position after five matches.
Four of those have brought wins, and Keaton Jennings and co sit pretty at the top of the North Group on eight points.
The latest of those was against Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge on Sunday, winning by six wickets chasing a target of 154.
Next up is a return to the East Midlands to take on Leicestershire, who have won three of their opening five games. They won their latest - against Durham at the Riverside last night. They defended a target of just 141 to win that by 10 runs having posted 140-8.
The Foxes were brilliant with the ball, albeit on a helpful, sluggish surface.
Opposition
Leicestershire are three-time champions of the Vitality Blast. They won it in 2004, 2006 and again in 2011. In the latter year, they beat Lancashire in the semi-final at Finals Day.
The Foxes are the reigning champions of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
So winning the Blast a year later would be quite the achievement for the East Midlanders.
Coached by ex-Somerset seamer Alfonso Thomas, a man etched into Lancashire’s T20 history for the wrong reasons, they are captained by Australian batter Peter Handscomb and have South African all-rounder Wiaan Mulder as their other overseas player.
England Rehan Ahmed will be a danger with bat and ball. The leg-spinning all-rounder, still only 19, has played 17 times in international cricket across all formats since debuting in the Test arena in December 2022.
Thomas took over from Paul Nixon, who he was assistant coach to, on an interim basis last season and was appointed full time ahead of 2024.
He is the ex-South Africa bowler who, in 2009, hit the stumps twice as Somerset won a Blast quarter-final against Lancashire 5-1 on a bowl out in the Indoor School after two-and-a-half-days of rain at Emirates Old Trafford had prevented a proper match.
Lancashire’s director of cricket performance Mark Chilton will need no reminding. He was one of the Red Rose bowlers that day.
Leicestershire finished bottom of the North Group table in 2023, winning only two of their 14 matches. They lost the other 12. Already this season, they have bettered that tally.
Opposing player to watch
Nineteen-year-old fast bowler Josh Hull is one to keep an eye on, and not just for this fixture.
Even at this early stage of his career - he has only played 26 matches across the formats for Leicestershire - it would be a surprise if we don’t see him in an England shirt reasonably soon.
A towering left-arm fast bowler from Cambridge, he debuted in all formats last summer and was part of the team which won the MB50 final against Hampshire in September.
Last week, Hull - standing at 6ft 7inches and with size 15 feet - signed a three-year contract extension at Grace Road, and in pre-season was named-checked by England managing director of cricket when he was discussing the need to develop a battery of fast bowlers ahead of the next Ashes tour Down Under in 2025/26.
Hull has been picked up in this summer’s Hundred by the Manchester Originals.
He returned a brilliant 1-16 from four overs in victory at Durham last night, comfortably defending 17 off the last over as the hosts finished on 130-8.
Previous meeting
The Lightning won the only North Group meeting between these two counties last season, by eight wickets at Emirates Old Trafford at the end of May.
And they did it emphatically, by eight wickets chasing only a target of 100.
Lancashire’s victory was set up by new ball quicks Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood, who claimed three wickets apiece as the Foxes were skittled for 99 in 18.5 overs.
The seam of New Zealander Colin de Grandhomme also accounted for two Leicestershire wickets as only South Wiaan Mulder, with 25, reached 20 in a nightmare batting display.
In reply, Lancashire’s top order dominated, despite the early departure of Luke Wells.
Steven Croft top-scored with 46 not out off 34 balls from number three, sharing 60 inside 60 overs for the second wicket - from 8-1 - with Phil Salt, who made 28. New Zealander Daryl Mitchell finished things off, alongside Croft, with two sixes in a quick-fire unbeaten 25.
Lightning won with a whopping 8.3 overs to spare.
What they said
At Trent Bridge on Sunday, after Lancashire’s victory against Nottinghamshire, in which Keaton Jennings top-scored with an excellent 64 off 49 balls from number three, the captain was asked about the differing starts his side has made both to the Vitality Blast and County Championship.
The Red Rose have won four from five in the Blast but only one from seven in the Championship.
They sit top of the North Group in the former but second-bottom of Division One in the latter.
“There are a few things behind our different seasons in the Championship and the Blast this year,” said the left-hander.
“We have very different bowling attacks for a start, and right across the team the guys have stuck their hands up to give us this good start.
“The bottom line is we just haven’t clicked in the Championship, and we know that.
Despite the frustrating start to the four-day season, Jennings still has confidence in his side’s ability against the red ball, a campaign which resumes a week on Sunday for a couple of rounds before the second half of the Blast group stage.
He added: “We are a side who’ll always target all three competitions, and we pride ourselves strongly on being in all three. We have the abilities all round to perform in them all.”
How’s Stat
Why have one when you can have two?!
As detailed in our website feature earlier this week on all-rounder Luke Wells, the 33-year-old is set to make his 50th T20 career appearance in this fixture.
Also, a fantastic night for Steven Croft could see him reach 5,000 T20 runs for Lancashire. He is currently sat on 4,913.