Match Preview: Lancashire vs Middlesex
Lancashire v Middlesex
Metro Bank One-Day Cup, Group B
Tuesday August 26, 2025, 11am
Emirates Old Trafford
Lancashire squad to face Middlesex:
Marcus Harris*, Tom Bailey, George Balderson, George Bell, Jack Blatherwick, Josh Bohannon, Josh Boyden, Kesh Fonseka, Luke Hands, Michael Jones, Joe Moores, Arav Shetty, Harry Singh
If you look purely at the Group B table, there’s not much to smile about in this season’s One-Day Cup, with Lancashire only winning one of their seven games and losing five.
But that would be taking very much a tunnel vision approach to things.
With so many players away at the Hundred, and coming up against some counties nowhere near as badly affected availability wise, this was always going to be a campaign concentrating on progression rather than performance.
And there are green shoots of positivity with regards to the former.
George Bell, whilst with a good amount of first-team cricket behind him, remains an emerging player. With the bat at the top of the order in the last two games - defeats to Durham and Warwickshire at Liverpool - he has scored 102 and 46.
Kesh Fonseka looked good against the Bears for 43, Arav Shetty hit 40 and has bowled nicely, Harry Singh and Charlie Barnard have impressed at stages too and 16-year-olds Luke Hands and Joe Moores have both debuted.
Fingers crossed, it stands them all in good stead for bigger and better things in the coming years.
Clearly, though, wins are an important part of that development, and this group of Lancashire players get the chance to round off their campaign on a high against a Middlesex side in contention for the knockouts having won five from seven so far.
Middlesex are coached by former Lancashire captain Dane Vilas.
Opposition
Middlesex are in a right old scrap for a top-three finish and knockout qualification.
They currently sit fourth in Group B with 20 points, the same haul as second-placed Somerset and third-placed Warwickshire. Yorkshire are top on 24 points and already all but assured of a home semi-final at the weekend.
So, basically, three teams are fighting for two spots to join them in the knockouts.
And Middlesex’s aim has to be win and win well at Emirates Old Trafford as they have an inferior net run-rate to that of Warwickshire’s and Somerset’s. Not overwhelmingly so, but it could be that deciding factor which costs them.
When Lancashire reached the final of this competition in 2021, ex-South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Dane Vilas was in their team which lost to Kent at Trent Bridge.
Tomorrow, he will return to Emirates Old Trafford as Middlesex’s interim coach having taken over from Richard Johnson, who was sacked midway through the season.
Middlesex have impressed in this competition, most notably chasing down 388 earlier in the competition to beat Durham at the Banks Homes Riverside.
It was the highest successful List A run chase ever achieved in England.
Former England Test opener Sam Robson scored a career best 169 not out in that match and is their leading run-scorer in this campaign with 423 to his name. Seamer Henry Brookes leads the way with 11 wickets.
They beat Northamptonshire by four wickets chasing 190 at Wantage Road yesterday.
Left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar claimed four wickets and Robson top-scored with 67.
Top-order batter Ben Geddes is their captain.
Opposition player to watch
While Sam Robson leads the way with 400-plus runs to his name, Ben Geddes is not far behind with 337 from seven matches, including a best of 141 not out in victory over Kent at Radlett last week.
Geddes, 24, made the winter move across the River Thames from Surrey and is leading his second county in this competition whilst Leus du Plooy is away at the Hundred.
Middlesex believe Geddes is a batter with huge potential, as he has shown over the last few weeks from number four in the order.
He has scored three red-ball career centuries, highlighting a versatility to his game.
Previous meeting
These two counties were grouped together in last year’s competition, both missing out on knockout qualification.
Middlesex won the meeting at Emirates Old Trafford in early August, by five wickets on Duckworth Lewis Stern as they replied to Lancashire’s 48-over total of 223-9.
Rocky Flintoff, batting at number four, top-scored with an impressive career best 88 off 115 balls to give the Red Rose bowlers something to work with.
Unfortunately, though, in reply, Middlesex chased comfortably thanks to standout scores of 98 off 123 balls from opener Joe Cracknell and Sam Robson’s 87 not out off 110 from number three.
They advanced things from 45-1, sharing 165 for the second wicket.
Jack Morley’s left-arm spin accounted for three wickets as Middlesex stumbled close to the winning line. But they won with eight balls remaining midway through the group campaign.
What they said
On Friday, Lancashire were beaten by five wickets at the hands of Warwickshire at Liverpool as the Bears chased down a 250-target.
Fast bowler Jack Blatherwick gave the Red Rose an early sniff of victory in defence with three new-ball wickets as the visitors fell to 81-3 before recovering.
In all, Blatherwick returned a career best haul of 4-48 from 10 overs in his first outing of the campaign following injury.
In the build-up to this game, Blatherwick has been speaking about the benefits of this competition for the future of the whole county game and not just Lancashire.
He said: “There's a lot of young lads in that dressing room.
“I've been watching from the sidelines back home and just seeing someone like Luke Hands, who was born in 2008. Him coming in to play is just bonkers.
“I couldn’t imagine when I was 16-years-old coming into a first-team game like he did at Somerset - full house - and put a performance on (1-32 with the ball).
“Imagine what he's like when he's 20, 21. It’s exciting!”
Blatherwick, aged 27, continued: “You see across all the counties a lot of lads are getting a go and they're doing well.
“I think it's credit to the competition.
“We set out to do well in it, but you learn a lot and lads will keep getting better for playing in it.”
How’s Stat!
Michael Jones has scored exactly 1,000 List A runs in his career for Lancashire, Durham and Scotland.
The Ormskirk-born opener, in his first season at Emirates Old Trafford, is one of three Red Rose batters who have passed the 250-run mark in this season’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Marcus Harris leads the way on 273, Jones is next on 254 and opening partner George Bell has 251.