MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire Lightning v Yorkshire
Lancashire head into the first of two Roses battles inside a week with seven wins from their opening 10 North Group games and are on course for the quarter-finals.
Lancashire Lightning v Yorkshire
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday July 11, 2025, 7pm
Emirates Old Trafford
Match Guide
There was a blip against the Bears at Edgbaston on Wednesday evening as the Lightning were unable to chase down a 204-target, losing their third game of 2025. They dropped to second place behind Durham on net run-rate in the process.
Yorkshire, though, are struggling at the other end of the table, winning only three of their 10 matches so far to sit second-bottom of the North Group table.
Lancashire have a strong record in this fixture, having not lost at home to Yorkshire since 2014 - the season before they won their only Blast title. The last two games at Emirates Old Trafford have been washed out, however.
Yorkshire have won the last two games played, both at Headingley.
The two sides meet again at Headingley next Thursday.
Opposition
Yorkshire haven’t had anywhere near the campaign they were after.
They aren’t mathematically out of the running for the quarter-finals, but they simply have to win their remaining four games and hope it’s enough to elevate them into the top four places.
The White Rose are under the guidance of a new management team this season; head coach Anthony McGrath re-joined his home county from Essex over the winter and former England batter Dawid Malan is their Blast captain. He is sharing leadership duties with red-ball skipper Jonny Bairstow.
Both men are set to play in this clash.
They are the two star names in a line-up including overseas duo Abdullah Shafique and Will Sutherland.
Pakistan batter Shafique is set for his Blast debut, while Australian all-rounder Will Sutherland has been with them since the start of the campaign.
Malan is their leading run-scorer with 335, including four fifties, and New Zealand fast bowler Will O’Rourke leads their wicket-taking chart with 15. He, however, departed after their defeat to Derbyshire at Chesterfield on Sunday.
Yorkshire are one of the four counties never to have won this competition alongside Derbyshire, Durham and Glamorgan.
Opposition player to watch
Lancashire fans will know all about the capabilities of Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan, who are likely to open the batting for the visitors.
But following them in the order are two emerging players who will play a big part in the county’s future. One is number three Will Luxton, whose 226-run haul from 10 matches includes his first two career fifties in this format.
Luxton is aged 22 and has played one Roses match before. But we will take a more in-depth look at a player who hasn’t in James Wharton, the 24-year-old right-handed number four.
The two rained-off clashes at Emirates Old Trafford in the last two seasons haven’t helped Wharton’s Roses cause. But he will feature in this one given he has scored 312 runs from 10 matches and has been one of Yorkshire’s standout batters.
A Blast centurion against Worcestershire at Headingley in 2023, he scored a blistering 88 against the same opponents at the same venue a couple of games ago and could really hurt Lancashire if they don’t get him out early doors.
Born in Huddersfield, he scored a Championship double century late last season and his father Paul played on the wing for Warrington RL side in the mid-1970s.
What they said
Steven Croft knows a thing or two about Roses Blast matches having played 32 of them in a sparkling career which started in 2005 and ended last year.
No player from either county has featured more than Croft in this famous old battle. He has tasted the highs and lows, and he loved every single minute.
“T20, when it’s full here - even away - it’s a great spectacle,” said the former all-rounder. “Those lads who haven’t played international cricket, it’s the closest thing to it in county cricket.
“Speaking to some of our lads, they feel privileged to get in the eleven.
“For some of the lads who have played international cricket to be saying that, it’s a statement to the quality out there.
“That’s what we want to see - the best players on the field, all fit, going against each other. You want to see the best versus the best.
“Jos Buttler, James Anderson, Joe Root in the past, Jonny Bairstow this year - they’re blockbuster names, and it’s what people want to see.”
Previous meeting
With last year’s mid-July clash at Emirates Old Trafford washed out, the fixture at Headingley three weeks earlier was the only Roses meeting of 2024.
And Yorkshire won (June 20) it by seven runs as they successfully defended a 174-target.
Home captain Shan Masood - he has since departed to Leicestershire - top-scored for Yorkshire with 61 off 41 balls from number four, underpinning a total of 173-8.
Joe Root also contributed 43, with Saqib Mahmood striking three times with the ball in addition to two wickets apiece for Chris Green and Jack Blatherwick.
In reply, Lightning responded with 166-8, with Keaton Jennings top-scoring with 46 off 24 balls from number three. But a costly period came as they slipped from 47-1 in the sixth over to 88-5 in the 11th, including the departure of Jennings.
Dom Bess and Jordan Thompson struck twice apiece for Yorkshire.
How’s Stat!
Despite Yorkshire holding sway over the last few years at Headingley, Lancashire have held firm at Emirates Old Trafford for more than a decade.
Yorkshire have not won in Manchester since the 2014 campaign.
Since then, the Red Rose have won five matches, with two ties in addition to three other games which have been rained off.