MATCH PREVIEW: Yorkshire Vikings v Lancashire Lightning
Hold onto your hats, this and the Roses clash at Emirates Old Trafford are the two fixtures everybody connected with Lancashire and Yorkshire look for first when the fixtures come out.
Yorkshire Vikings v Lancashire Lightning
Vitality Blast, North Group
Thursday June 20, 2024, 7.15pm
Headingley
You will hear players and coaches say it regularly.
In fact, England legend Joe Root has said it in the build-up to this clash, one which he will feature in before Test Match duty. More of him in a while.
Lancashire head into this fixture - a near sell-out - top of the North Group standings at the halfway point in their schedule.
They may have hit a stumbling block at Durham on Sunday, losing a high-scoring thriller by two runs as they valiantly chased 219, but it’s been an excellent start to this season’s Blast nonetheless.
The Lightning have won five of seven games, sat on 10 points - two ahead of a three-team pack including Birmingham Bears, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
Yorkshire are sat on six points - three wins, three defeats. They were beaten at home to Leicestershire on Sunday.
This is the Red Rose side’s final Blast fixture before the return of County Championship cricket for the next fortnight.
With England’s football team playing Denmark from 5pm, Yorkshire are showing that game on a big screen at Headingley beforehand.
Opposition
Yorkshire have lost their last two matches, away against Birmingham and at home to Leicestershire - on Friday and Sunday.
They are one of five counties never to have won the Blast; Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire are the others.
The Vikings won the only meeting between these two counties in last season’s Blast. They won at Headingley before the return clash at Emirates Old Trafford was abandoned without a ball bowled because of the wet weather.
Coached by Ottis Gibson, they are captained by Pakistan batter Shan Masood. He is their main overseas player and his nation’s Test Match skipper. South African wicketkeeper-batter Donovan Ferreira has been signed as overseas for this competition only.
Yorkshire, like Lancashire, have had to do things differently in this season’s Blast.
Whereas Lancashire are missing a host of stars due to the T20 World Cup, Yorkshire have been hurt by a number of seam bowling injuries. Mickey Edwards, Matthew Fisher and Matt Milnes are three senior quicks sidelined who would have all been a big part of their T20 plans. Instead, they are having to rely more on the spin of Dom Bess, Jafer Chohan and Dan Moriarty.
But they will field a star-studded top five with the bat. Dawid Malan, their leading scorer in this season’s Blast with 223 runs from six games, will open with Adam Lyth, while Joe Root, Masood and Ferreira make up the rest.
Seam bowling all-rounder Jordan Thompson is their leading wicket-taker in this season’s Blast with nine.
Opposition player to watch
Joe Root has played an unusually high number of county matches in 2024.
The England batting legend has played five County Championship matches and is also featuring in the first eight in the Vitality Blast.
Despite not playing a T20 international for England since May 2019, Root absolutely loves this format and is keen to play as much of it for Yorkshire as he can.
He is more busy than belligerent at the crease - he has largely been batting at three in this competition - and the 33-year-old’s off-spinners are more than useful.
T20 cricket is the format which Root has not scored a century, though he has 14 fifties to his name in 103 appearances and averages a respectable 32.01.
This will be his penultimate county appearance - Yorkshire also travel to Durham on Friday - before he resumes Test Match duties with England for home series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, starting early next month.
Previous meeting
Early last June, Yorkshire beat Lancashire at Headingley by 15 runs in a win which surprised many, including a host of Vikings supporters.
They had started the Blast season badly and were facing an on-song Lightning with a host of internationals stars in their line-up. England white ball captain Jos Buttler was one of them.
But Yorkshire clinched victory on the back of a superb 83 off 50 balls from Buttler’s international team-mate Dawid Malan, who underpinned a home total of 195-6.
When Buttler fell for one off two balls, caught at mid-off against Dom Bess’s off-spin, Lancashire fans would have started to feel nervy. And their unease, unfortunately, proved well-founded as the Lightning fell short on 180-8. Seamers Ben Mike and David Wiese each claimed two wickets for the hosts.
New Zealander Colin de Grandhomme claimed 3-24 from four overs of skilful seam for Lancashire.
What they said
It will be very much a case of friendly fire in the respective dugouts for this season’s two Roses Blast matches, with Lancashire coach Dale Benkenstein and his Yorkshire counterpart Ottis Gibson the very best of friends.
Benkenstein and Gibson are former team-mates at Durham and ex-coaching colleagues with the South African national team.
But that won’t mean the will to win is any less.
“As much we’ll both tell you we’re really close, I promise you that we both want to win. When it’s work, it’s work,” said Red Rose coach Benkenstein.
“We’ll go hammer and tongues on the field and then go and have a Guinness afterwards!”
Benkenstein added: “He stays at my house all the time, I stay at his. He’s pretty much like family to me.
“We’ve known each other since we were about 18-years-old. We’re very, very good friends, ex-team-mates, and he got me to work with South Africa when he was the head coach. We worked closely together as a coaching team.”
Ahead of this fixture, Gibson said: “Benky and I have known each other for, I’d imagine, the best part of 30 years. He’s doing a great job at Lancashire, and I’m very pleased for him and proud of him for that.
“I still want to get one over him on Thursday. But, whatever happens, we will still sit down and have a drink. The outcome of that game isn’t going to affect our friendship.
“Everybody looks forward to the Roses match, and there’s going to be a bit extra on it for me and him.”
How’s Stat!
In the history of the Vitality Blast, Lancashire have beaten Yorkshire 19 times and lost 14. There have also been three ties, added to those Roses fixtures which have been abandoned because of the weather.
Lancashire’s last win over Yorkshire was in the semi-final at Edgbaston in July 2022.