MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire Lightning v Worcestershire Rapids
Lancashire’s pursuit of a second Blast title begins with the first of back-to-back home games. Worcestershire are first up before Nottinghamshire visit on Saturday.
Lancashire Lightning v Worcestershire Rapids
Vitality Blast, North Group
Thursday May 29, 2025, 6.30pm
Emirates Old Trafford
Chris Green returns for a second season as one of Lancashire’s Blast overseas players, while his fellow Australian all-rounder Ashton Turner will debut during Steven Croft's first match in interim charge.
The Lightning are aiming to better last season’s quarter-final finish and will hope a good first half of the North Group campaign builds momentum ahead of the resumption of County Championship cricket during the latter stages of next month.
Like Lancashire, Worcestershire are also one-time Blast champions.
They won this title in 2018, three seasons after the Red Rose triumphed at Edgbaston against Northamptonshire in the final. Lancashire’s coach that night, Ashley Giles, is the current chief executive at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
The Pears have also had a difficult first half of the summer in four-day cricket, struggling in Division One. They sit bottom of that particular table.
Lancashire fast bowler Mitch Stanley could face his former county, as could Worcestershire batter Rob Jones.
The Red Rose will be without Jos Buttler, Tom Hartley, Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood, who are all on England ODI duty against the West Indies. Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone remain on IPL duty with Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Sir James Anderson could play his first T20 match since August 2014 and Michael Jones is a potential debutant alongside his former Durham team-mate Turner.
There is a change in the points system for this season's Blast, designed to ensure both the men's and the women's competitions have more symmetry. Four points instead of two will be on offer for a win, while two points instead of one will be awarded for a tie.
Opposition:
While Lancashire finished third in the North last season with seven wins from 14 games, the Rapids endured a disappointing campaign with only four wins. They finished second-bottom in the table.
Coached by Alan Richardson and captained by Brett D’Oliveira, they have signed fast bowlers Jacob Duffy and Ben Dwarshuis from New Zealand and Australia respectively as their two overseas players.
Duffy has been playing early-season Championship cricket at New Road, while Dwarshuis is set to make his second debut having previous represented the county in the 2021 Blast.
The left-armer from the Sydney Sixers also represented Durham in last season’s Blast.
Emerging all-rounder Ethan Brookes was their leading run-scorer in last season’s Blast with 315 runs from 14 matches in the middle order, while Tom Taylor’s seam accounted for 17 wickets.
Opposing player to watch:
Ethan Brookes turned 24-years-old last week.
He signed from home county Warwickshire ahead of last season and made his senior debut in T20 cricket for the Rapids last season, enjoying a hugely productive introduction to the Blast.
Brookes is a dynamic batter and a seam bowler who added 11 wickets to that aforementioned 315-run haul from 14 appearances.
So far this season, in the Rothesay County Championship, he has enjoyed more success with the bat than the ball.
He has got a lot of starts and has posted a best score of 88.
Previous meeting:
These two counties shared victories in last season’s Blast.
Worcestershire won by five wickets at New Road in late May, successfully chasing a 170-target.
Back at Emirates Old Trafford, in early June, Lancashire won a thriller by two wickets chasing 182, achieving a target of 11 runs off the last over thanks to 50 off 36 balls for not out New Zealander Tom Bruce and nine off three balls at the end for unbeaten Luke Wood.
Josh Cobb top-scored for the Rapids with 74 from number three in their 181-4, which included two wickets apiece for Saqib Mahmood and Chris Green.
In reply, the Lightning had to recover from 65-4 in the seventh over.
Bruce led the way with three fours and two sixes after captain Keaton Jennings had earlier made 41.
Australian Green continued his good night with 24 off 17 balls, while Tom Hartley hit 18 off five as a series of valuable contributions earned the Red Rose the two points off the penultimate ball.
What they said:
Keaton Jennings believes Ashton Turner will add significant know-how and steel to Lancashire’s Vitality Blast side as the Australian all-rounder prepares to debut against Worcestershire.
Turner joins fellow Aussie all-rounder Chris Green in Red Rose ranks this summer.
He is an all-rounder whose main suit is with the bat in the middle order. He has deceptive power and is an expert at finishing an innings off. But his ability to bowl off-spin will also be particularly important at Emirates Old Trafford.
Turner currently captains Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash, and the 32-year-old has been there, done it and bought the t-shirt when it comes to domestic short-form cricket.
He has played 217 T20 matches in his career and has won Big Bash trophy after Big Bash trophy. He joins having represented Durham for the last three seasons, captaining them in his first campaign (2022).
“It will be amazing to see Greeny again,” said Jennings. “And AT, I think he’s going to love it. He’s a fantastic lad. He’s very quiet but is a tough, tough bloke.
“Those Australians out in WA are a very, very strong, competitive and stand up to adversity bunch. I’m really looking forward to seeing him pull on the Red Rose.”
Jennings knows all too well just how tough a start to the season it has been for the county in the Championship, but they now park that competition until late June.
He added: “It will be a nice break for the guys. It’s been a slog of seven or eight weeks.
“It’s a different format, music, get some fireworks in the air, I think it will be brilliant.”
How’s Stat:
Lancashire are hoping the 2025 Vitality Blast will bring them a 10th Finals Day appearance.
The previous nine appearances came in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022.