Match Preview: Lancashire Lightning vs Notts Outlaws
Lancashire Lightning v Nottinghamshire Outlaws
Vitality Blast, North Group
Saturday May 31, 2025, 4pm - Emirates Old Trafford
The first double header day of the summer at Emirates Old Trafford sees the Lightning tackle the Outlaws after the Thunder women take on The Blaze from midday.
This fixture forms part of a hectic start to the Blast for Lancashire’s men, the second of three games in four days.
Interim head coach Steven Croft oversaw a morale boosting opening night home win, by seven runs, over Worcestershire Rapids last night. Nottinghamshire start their campaign at home to Birmingham Bears at Trent Bridge this evening.
Whatever that result of that clash, coach Peter Moores and co will land in Manchester in buoyant mood.
They sit top of the Rothesay County Championship Division One table at the halfway mark in the campaign having won four of their opening seven matches.
This forms the second part of a T20 double header day - which is themed as the Club's first ever Pride Fixture - at Emirates Old Trafford, with Lancashire Thunder first up against The Blaze at 12pm in their Vitality Blast women’s opener. Thunder are in buoyant mood after claiming the Vitality County T20 Cup title earlier this week.
Opposition
Captained by experienced T20 gun for hire Joe Clarke, Nottinghamshire are two-time winners in this format having triumphed in 2017 and again in 2020.
Six times at Finals Day, but the Outlaws were uncharacteristically poor last year, finishing bottom of the North Group table.
Wicketkeeper-batter Clarke, a regular around the global domestic leagues, will be confident of much better in 2025, especially given the current mood around Trent Bridge.
There is no Alex Hales this season after he relocated to Dubai, but Peter Moores has gone for two experienced heads on the overseas front in all-rounders Moises Henriques and Daniel Sams from either side of the Sydney Big Bash divide.
Sams has made waves for the Thunder, while Henriques is a title-winning captain of the Sixers. Sams has spent recent seasons with Essex, but he knows Trent Bridge well as a Rockets player in the Hundred. Henriques previously represented Surrey pre-Covid.
Clarke was their leading run-scorer with 306 runs last season, whereas England pacer Olly Stone was their leading wicket-taker with 14. But there is a danger he could miss the entire tournament this term because of injury.
As much as the focus will be on added experience, England Lions batter Freddie McCann will hope to kick after impressing in red-ball cricket.
He made 48 opening the batting on T20 debut against Yorkshire at Headingley last July as the Outlaws ended that campaign with a consolatory win.
Opposition player to watch
Australian batting all-rounder Moises Henriques is closing in on 300 career appearances in T20 cricket.
He is 18 away, so he won’t quite reach that milestone during his summer with Notts’ - even if they go all the way. But he will bring runs, maybe wickets with his useful seamers and valuable leadership experience.
Aged 38, Henriques is Portugal-born but capped 44 times across all formats for Australia. He has scored more than 5,000 runs in T20 cricket.
He has twice led the Sydney Sixers to the Big Bash League title and has made more appearances than anyone else in that particular competition. Only three players have scored more runs than him.
He is a right-hander who just knows how to get the job done in any situation. He is a classy batter with plenty of power.
Previous meeting
Lancashire completed the Blast double over Nottinghamshire last summer.
They won by six wickets at Trent Bridge in early June, successfully chasing 154 thanks to a brisk 64 from opening batter and captain Keaton Jennings.
Back at Emirates Old Trafford in late July, the Lightning won again to confirm qualification for the quarter-finals.
That one was a hammering - by eight wickets chasing 132 with more than five overs remaining.
Notts were limited to 131-7 as Luke Wood claimed a superb 3-23 from four overs having taken the new ball. Lyndon James made a middle order 51 off 38 balls for the visitors, but it was nowhere near enough to threaten a victory.
In reply, from 14-1, England duo Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone shared a blistering 112-run partnership to ice the game.
Salt top-scored with 70 off 42 balls with five sixes and Livingstone finished 54 not out from 37 with three sixes.
What they said
Steven Croft is relishing the prospect of Lancashire’s hectic start to this season’s Vitality Blast, saying: “I think it's probably the best way, and what we needed at the current time.”
The Lightning got off to a winning start against the Worcestershire Rapids last night.
They now face Nottinghamshire tomorrow before tackling Durham at the Banks Homes Riverside on Sunday.
After that, they return to Emirates Old Trafford on Wednesday to face Leicestershire Foxes.
“Saturday will be a really tough game against a good opposition,” said the county’s interim head coach. “And on the road on Sunday.
“I think it's the best time for it, three games in four days. They come thick and fast, and hopefully we get on an early roll.”
Croft took on the reins from Dale Benkenstein on Wednesday after the South African departed.
A County Championship winner as a player in 2011, he was also captain of the Lightning side which won the Blast in 2015 - their only title in this format.
It would be quite the thing for the Blackpool native if he won this competition as a captain and then again as a coach. Albeit, there clearly remains a lot of water to go under the bridge before that happens.
“I hope so, yeah,” he smiled.
"We’ve got belief in these players, and we have got the players to do it.
“Just get a couple of wins under our belts, and then you start to get on a roll in this competition.
“It's anyones once you get out of the group. That’s the main aim to get out of the group, and we’ll take it one day at a time first.”
How’s Stat
Last year was the fourth time that Lancashire have completed the season’s Blast double over Nottinghamshire having previously achieved it in 2008, 2009 and 2022.