MATCH PREVIEW: Lancashire Thunder v Buckinghamshire, Vitality County T20 Cup
Lancashire Thunder v Buckinghamshire
Vitality County T20 Cup, Round Three
Sunday June 21, 2026, 2pm
Neston CC, Parkgate
The memories remain fresh for Lancashire from last May when they won the Vitality County T20 Cup title at Taunton, their maiden trophy in the professional era.
Since 2020, largely under the guise of the regional moniker Thunder, they have chased silverware without reward. Last year, though, it all came together as they beat The Blaze and then Surrey at Finals Day.
This Sunday, they get their title defence underway with a third-round tie against Tier 3 side Buckinghamshire at Neston, starting at 2pm.
And what a year it would be to win this competition given that Finals Day will be played at Emirates Old Trafford on Saturday August 29.
“The memories we have from Finals Day last year, to have the opportunity to repeat them at our home ground, everyone’s really excited about that,” said Lancashire’s director of women’s cricket David Thorley.
“It’s a lovely thing to aim for.”
Asked how it came about that Finals Day would be hosted in Manchester, Thorley said: “As with many things here, our CEO Daniel (Gidney) asked the question.
“We flagged it to the ECB last year that all three finals were very Southern. We thought this would be a good chance to get one of them up here in the North, and it’s brilliant they agreed and chose us.”
Lancashire have had a challenging season so far in both the Metro Bank One-Day - the other title they won last year - and the Vitality Blast.
They remain in the hunt in both those competitions. But there’s no doubt that their best chance of silverware comes in this FA Cup style knockout competition.
The Red Rose face a Buckinghamshire side who have already beaten Suffolk and Norfolk. All Tier 1 counties enter in round three, and they are two wins from Finals Day.
“We have a decent knowledge of Bucks,” continued Thorley. “Last year, we loaned Olivia Bell to them for a game, so we have a bit of a working relationship with them and their coach Ben (Ungaretti).
“We are approaching this like any other fixture. We’ll do all the analysis we can.
“Obviously some of the players are not as well known, and there's not the same extent of footage. But that brings a danger as well in terms of some unknown quantities.
“There are a lot of exciting young players there.
“We want to approach it like we did last year, ultimately. We started off playing Tier 2 teams in Glamorgan and Leicestershire and it was, ‘We need to show up and get into the next round’. It will be exactly the same with Bucks.
“This is our first ever home fixture as well. We were away every step of the journey last year. But, with the T20 World Cup going on, we don’t have the use of Emirates Old Trafford.”
With that in mind, Lancashire have been training at their new Farington facility on the outskirts of Preston. They have been training on the professional oval, which is due to host some first-team women’s and men’s One-Day Cup matches before the end of the season.
The plan is for the men to be up first in July before the women in September.
The vast majority of Tier 1 counties are presently dealing with availability issues because of the T20 World Cup. Lancashire have four contracted players at that tournament, including England spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who took four wickets in last year’s final win over Surrey. Fast bowler Grace Potts is also on England A duty.
“One thing it does do is give opportunities to young homegrown players,” said Thorley.
“Obviously Venus Weerappuli has been playing over the last few weeks and has done well. Olivia Brinsden and Liv Cunliffe have been in squads recently. They’re all from our Academy, which is exciting.”
Neston has hosted representative cricket in terms of second-team matches and friendlies, both for the Red Rose men and women but never a competitive first-team fixture.
It has also regularly hosted Cheshire’s National Counties matches.
“It’s a really good ground,” said Thorley. “They’re very accommodating and keen to have us. We’re very excited to go there.”
And asked whether Lancashire hosting Finals Day this season adds extra pressure to this fixture and the quarter-final which will hopefully follow, Thorley added: “Perhaps it does come into it, yes.
“It's almost self-created pressure by individuals looking at the prize on offer. But I’d say it’s more excitement than pressure.
“For us, though, we’re trying not to talk about it too much. It's one step at a time, knowing that we've got a good challenge against Buckinghamshire to come.”
Opposition player to watch
Captain Cara Duggan is Buckinghamshire’s leading run-scorer and leading wicket-taker in this season’s County Cup; 59 runs from two matches and three innings.
Wycombe-born Duggan has batted at three in wins over Suffolk and Norfolk and has taken the new ball and bowls seam.
She scored 44 in the latter and returned 2-16 from four overs. The former was a career best T20 score.
Duggan, aged 22, played a couple of warm-up matches for the Southern Vipers ahead of the start of the regional Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy 50-over competition in August 2020.
Previous meeting
Lancashire and Buckinghamshire have never met in T20, either in the professional or non-professional era of women’s cricket.
So, with that in mind, let’s have a look back to last season’s final, when Lancashire beat Surrey at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.
At the end of May, Thunder won the first trophy of the county-led professional era of women’s cricket - by 32 runs. There were a host of household names in that side, the likes of Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone. But it was emerging opener Tilly Kesteven who stole the show.
Lancashire posted 172-6 from their 20 overs, with Academy opener Kesteven hitting 77 off 60 balls. She shared 86 for the first wicket with Emma Lamb, who contributed 27. Fi Morris later did likewise in quick-fire style to boost the total.
Kesteven was in for injured Eve Jones, and she had been run out for a duck in the semi-final win over The Blaze.
Surrey made a strong start to their chase thanks to openers Bryony Smith (25) and Kira Chathli (21). They put on 29 inside three overs. But the Oval side needed more.
Lancashire took regular wickets, Cross two and Grace Potts one. But the left-arm spin of Ecclestone stood out with 4-12 from her four overs as Surrey finished with 140-7.
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