MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire v Gloucestershire
A crucial month in Lancashire’s promotion bid kicks off when Gloucestershire head to the North West, with the Red Rose aiming to claim their first win at the fourth attempt.
Lancashire v Gloucestershire
Rothesay County Championship, Division Two
Friday May 2 - Monday May 5, 2025, 11am
Emirates Old Trafford
Keaton Jennings and company have just had a weekend’s rest and are preparing for the first of four back-to-back Division Two games before the start of the Vitality Blast towards the end of May.
Lancashire have drawn their opening three matches, away at Middlesex and then against Northamptonshire and Leicestershire at Emirates Old Trafford.
While they had chances to beat Middlesex at Lord’s in round one, they were on the back foot in both home games.
Dale Benkenstein faces the county he led in 2022 and 2023, while it is the same situation for in-form Australian overseas batter Marcus Harris. The experienced left-hander scored 1,183 runs in 14 Championship appearances for the Bristol-based county during the same two summers, including five hundreds.
Harris has already scored 394 runs in three matches for Lancashire, including a century and three fifties.
Gloucestershire (38) are four points better off than Lancashire having played a game more.
They have drawn two and lost two and were beaten by league leaders Leicestershire at Bristol inside three days on Sunday. The Foxes won by two wickets chasing only 143.
Opposition
Gloucestershire finished seventh in Division Two last summer, winning twice in 14 games.
They are captained in red-ball cricket by Australian opener Cameron Bancroft and have his fellow West Australian available, the international all-rounder Cameron Green.
While Bancroft is available for the majority of the campaign - his fourth summer in the South West - Green is only available for five matches through to the end of this month. He has already played two and scored a century on debut in the recent draw against Kent.
After Dale Benkenstein left for Lancashire before the start of last season, former Glos and England all-rounder Mark Alleyne was appointed as his successor, and he claimed silverware in his first season in charge. They are the reigning Vitality Blast champions.
Gloucestershire haver plenty of pace in their bowling attack, with Zaman Akhter, Ajeet Singh Dale and former South Africa international Marchant de Lange all at their disposal.
Opposing player to watch
It would be easy to go to Cameron Green, who was an eye-catching overseas recruit for Mark Alleyne.
But one man who is worth keeping an eye on is England Lions fast bowler Zaman Akhter, who has started the season positively with five wickets in the first innings of their draw with Glamorgan at Bristol during the second week of the summer.
Akhter, 26, debuted for Gloucestershire in early 2023 having been signed after impressing for the South Asian Cricket Academy. He toured South Africa with the Lions before Christmas just gone.
A tall bowler with good pace and skill, the right-armer is also very handy with the bat down the order.
Previous meeting
The two counties played out a mid-summer, weather-affected draw in 2022.
Both were Division One teams back then, with Lancashire the most likely winners until rain started to fall just before lunch on the final day. At that stage, Gloucestershire were pretty safe. But they hadn’t been at the start of the day.
Glos were 99-3 in their second innings at the start of the day, leading by only 34. But when the rain came, with only 19 overs having been bowled, the hosts were 176-3 thanks to Miles Hammond’s 58 and James Bracey’s 55.
Earlier, the hosts, having elected to bat, were bowled out for 337 during the early stages of the second day. Opener Chris Dent top-scored with 110, while Red Rose left-arm spinner Jack Morley claimed 4-91 added to three wickets for Tom Bailey.
In reply, Lancashire totalled 402 all out, including a top-score of 94 for opener Keaton Jennings, 80 for Steven Croft and a lower order 50 for Luke Wood. New ball pair David Payne and Tom Price claimed three wickets apiece for Gloucestershire, as did fellow seamer Ryan Higgins.
What they said
Lancashire’s overseas star Marcus Harris says he is loving the challenge of batting down the order in Championship cricket this summer.
Harris, 32, has scored 12,007 first-class runs in 179 matches, including 607 14 Test Matches for Australia. The vast majority of those have been played as an opener and not at number four, where he has been positioned by coach Dale Benkenstein and captain Keaton Jennings.
But the move has reaped significant reward so far.
Harris’s 394 runs in three matches means he is the third leading run-scorer in Division Two. That haul includes a best of 138 on debut at Middlesex in round one.
“I’m happy with how it’s gone,” he said.
“You always feel like you’ve got a few more runs in you, but playing the new role of batting at four after opening my whole life has been really good. It sort of gives you a bit more energy - that excitement about playing a new role.
“I’ve enjoyed it, and I just want to continue on with my good form.
“Hopefully I can contribute towards a win at some stage.”
How’s Stat!
Aussie Marcus Harris has scored 30 first-class centuries during his career.
And a third of those tons have come in the County Championship, a competition he first played in for Leicestershire during the summer of 2021.
Harris’s 10 centuries have come in 32 appearances for the Red Rose, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, including a best of 214 for the Foxes against Derbyshire last April.
Only one player in Red Rose history has scored his first four 50 plus Championship scores in quicker time than Harris, who did so in his fifth innings - the first of the most recent draw against Leicestershire at Emirates Old Trafford.
That man? South Africa’s Ashwell Prince, who posted four 50 plus scores in his first two Championship appearances - four innings - for the county at the start of 2009.