Match Preview: Worcestershire vs Lancashire
Worcestershire v Lancashire
Vitality County Championship, Division One
Thursday September 26 - Sunday September 29, 2024, 10.30am
New Road
A superb victory over title-chasing Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford last week, inspired by Luke Wells, has given Lancashire hope in their bid to preserve Division One status.
The Red Rose county’s third win in 13 matches this season was achieved by 168 runs on the fourth morning, with Wells hitting a second-innings 130 added to 4-36.
It means Wells and co go into this week’s final round clash with Worcestershire sat second-bottom in the table, 15 points behind Nottinghamshire and 20 behind Warwickshire. Those two counties, sat seventh and eighth in the top-flight, play each other in the final round at Trent Bridge.
Should Notts gain 10 points from that match, they will be safe. Should Warwickshire gain five points from that match, they will be safe.
All Lancashire can do is head to New Road, repeat last week’s performance and whatever will be will be.
Worcestershire are sixth in the table, already safe. They have also won three of their 13 matches. They were beaten by Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl last week, by 235 runs as they fell short of chasing 394 on Friday’s final day.
Opposition
Worcestershire are quite rightly earning high praise having preserved their Division One status for another season.
It’s been a challenging season off the field down at New Road, where Lancashire’s former head coach Ashley Giles is the current chief executive.
The sudden passing of their fledgling spin bowler Josh Baker at the start of May was a tragedy no club should have to deal with.
On the field, they have battled hard against injury problems to win a trio of Championship matches following promotion from Division Two last season.
Coached by the ex-seamer Alan Richardson, they are captained by all-rounder Brett D’Oliveira.
They will farewell their retiring seam bowler Joe Leech this week. The 33-year-old former club captain has taken 475 first-class wickets added to 3,958 runs.
Kashif Ali is their leading Championship run-scorer this season with 757 runs, while seamers Nathan Smith and Tom Taylor have taken 27 wickets apiece.
New Zealand overseas Smith was with the county for the first half of the season. The Pears are ending the season with New Zealand-born Dutch international seamer Logan van Beek as their overseas player.
Opposition player to watch
All-rounder Ethan Brookes is likely to be a mainstay of Worcestershire’s side for the foreseeable future.
Aged 23, Brookes, whose older brother Henry plays for Middlesex, came through the ranks at Warwickshire moved across to New Road ahead of this season.
A lower middle order batter with the ability to be very dynamic and a seam bowler, he has had an encouraging start to life with his second county, scoring just over 750 runs in all cricket added to 23 wickets.
He scored a superb 132 from number seven in the first innings of last week’s defeat at Hampshire.
Should he face Lancashire, as expected, it would be only his 10th first-class appearance.
Previous meeting
This is the only meeting of this season between promotion-chasing Lancashire and Worcestershire, the last coming in 2019 at New Road when the pair played out a heavily rain-affected draw which saw only 71.3 overs bowled across the four days.
Days Two and Four of this mid-June Division Two fixture were completely washed out.
The potent new ball duo of Jimmy Anderson and Graham Onions struck four times apiece as the Red Rose bowled their hosts out for just 98 on day one. Saqib Mahmood claimed the other two as only one Worcester batter - Ed Barnard with 32 - reached 20.
Lancashire’s first innings did not begin until after lunch on day three, they totalled 110-3 in reply, of which Liam Livingstone top-scored with an unbeaten 53.
The visitors had fallen to 32-3 before Livingstone dominated a 78-run partnership with opener Haseeb Hameed, who was 22 not out.
This was one of six draws in 14 games as Lancashire, who won the other eight, finished unbeaten through the season and top of Division Two.
What they said
Dale Benkenstein believes last week’s win over title-chasing Somerset will be an important moment in his team’s development - even if it doesn’t end up contributing to securing safety.
The 168-run win against Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford has given the Red Rose an outside chance of beating the drop as they head to New Road to tackle Worcestershire over the next four days.
“There’s a lot not in our hands, which is not where you want to be,” said the coach. “You’re now relying on the weather, they can produce the pitch they want. But we’ve still got a chance, and we’re going there with a lot of confidence.”
Benkenstein doesn’t shy away from the fact this year has been “disappointing” in red ball cricket, continuing: “You were never coming in thinking it was going to be this tumultuous. But the change has been quite drastic.
“Players who we maybe thought would be available are not available.
“It’s definitely not the season we wanted.”
However, the South African refused to be downbeat and is convinced there are positives to build on.
“We are developing our cricket, and there have been some very exciting sides to this season,” he said. “We’ve unearthed quite a lot of young players.
“We’re trying to win, but we’re also trying to produce the next Livingstone, Salt, and I think there’s some really exciting talent here.
“With a lot of change, nothing happens straightaway. You hope it does, but we’ve had a lot of change from a staffing point of view and a team point of view.
“In the four-dayers, nearly every game we’re clapping for debuts. With that does come a bit of inconsistency. Also, as a new coaching group, our messaging doesn’t always filter through straightaway.
“It has been a process, and it would be nice if the season was starting now. But life doesn’t always work like that.
“Some of the hardships we’ve been through, I’ve been able to see characters and the character of the team and coaches.
“It’s easy when everything’s going well, but it’s a real testament to the group we have that we’ve stuck together.
“They really have been feeling it and hurting, but they’ve managed to come out and play some really good cricket at the back end of a tough season.
“That (Somerset victory) will give us a lot of confidence - not just about right now but also going forwards. We haven’t just beaten any team, we have beaten a team who was vying for the Championship.
“It just shows that we can be at that level.”
How’s Stat!
Keaton Jennings has reached 1,000 County Championship runs in a season for the third time in his career.
Lancashire’s captain and opener moved to 1,005 runs for 2024 during last week’s win over Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford. He reached 1,233 in 2022 whilst wearing the Red Rose and did it once in Durham colours - in 2016 when he amassed 1,548.
That was his penultimate season with Durham before moving to Emirates Old Trafford ahead of 2018.