MATCH PREVIEW: Leicestershire Foxes vs. Lancashire Lightning, Vitality Blast
Leicestershire Foxes v Lancashire Lightning
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday June 26, 2026, 6.30pm
The Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road
After a fortnight’s break for two rounds of Championship cricket, the Blast resumes and will play to a finish over the next few weeks.
Lancashire will be aiming to build on their victory last time out, against Durham at Banks Homes Riverside, when Liam Livingstone fired them to a rainy 10-over success as they chased down 129 thanks to his stunning 85 not out off 31 balls.
That was win number two of six in the North Group.
The Lightning sit bottom of the table on eight points, but it’s incredibly tight in the race for the quarter-finals.
A reminder, the top two in each of the six-team groups advance to the last eight, with the two best third-placed finishers also advancing. Lancashire are only four points off second-placed Nottinghamshire with six to play.
Leicestershire are third, also on 12 points. They have won three, including one of them against the Red Rose at Emirates Old Trafford.
So revenge may well be in the air. Much more importantly, Lancashire need to get on a roll.
Opposition
Leicestershire are three-time Blast winners, in 2004, 2006 and 2011. In the latter year, they beat Lancashire in an Edgbaston semi-final which went to a Super Over.
Unfortunately for the Foxes, they have rarely threatened since.
But they are in a position now where they will believe they can advance to the quarters following wins over Lancashire, Sussex and Yorkshire.
Those three wins have all come in their last three games.
Coached by former South Africa international seamer Alfonso Thomas - he of the Somerset bowl-out fame against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford in 2009 - they are captained by Blast-winning all-rounder Ben Green.
In his first full season with Leicestershire, having signed from Somerset, the Devonian has won the Blast twice in the last three seasons.
They have England all-rounder Rehan Ahmed in their ranks, so too former Lancashire all-rounder Ashton Turner as one of their overseas players. The Australian is supplemented by New Zealand batter Nick Kelly.
Opposition player to watch
New Zealand left-hander Nick Kelly heads into this fixture brimming with confidence after scoring his maiden Leicestershire century in a Championship win over Yorkshire inside three days at Grace Road over the weekend.
Kelly batted beautifully in that game.
He’s in his first season of county cricket, with the 32-year-old having played 15 times for his country; six ODIs and seven T20Is, all of his T20 appearances coming earlier this year.
He has 12 fifties in 106 career T20 appearances and is in excellent form across all formats.
In his last five matches - six innings, he has posted scores of 29, 30, 44, 78, 19 and 121.
Previous meeting
Leicestershire recorded their first win in this year’s Blast when they survived an extraordinary fight-back to defeat Lancashire by two wickets at Emirates Old Trafford last month.
Requiring 146 to win, the Foxes were 131-3 with 19 balls left.
But Chris Green bowled Nick Kelly for 29 to start a dramatic collapse which saw Saqib Mahmood take two wickets in two balls and George Balderson two in an over to leave the ninth-wicket pair Ian Holland and Josh Davey needing 10 off the last over.
The situation was complicated by the fact that Sol Budinger could not bat after his collision with Liam Trevaskis earlier in the game. But a boundary apiece from Holland and Davey, and two scrambled singles, saw them home with one ball to spare.
Mahmood’s excellent 3-22 from his four overs went unrewarded, with Rishi Patel top-scoring with 40 from number three.
Earlier, Lancashire recovered from 36-4 in the seventh over to give themselves a chance with a 145-9 which saw Joe Moores top-score with a middle-order 55 off 39 balls, his maiden first-team fifty.
What they said
Lancashire head to Grace Road on a high in T20 terms, thanks to that stunning 85 not out from Liam Livingstone up at Durham a few weeks ago.
Their position at the bottom of the North Group doesn’t really reflect their chances of qualification for the quarter-finals with six games to play.
“We're one win away from second spot, so I think we're clinging on to that and hopefully will build on that Durham win,” said head coach Steven Croft. “It was great to end that little spell, and we have to start again.
“We take nothing for granted, as we’ve found out in the four-day cricket this year.
“We have to pitch up and give ourselves a good account of ourselves because no-one's going to roll over.
"We've hopefully got some players coming back into the squad, which is an exciting spot to be in.
“We'll be full of confidence, and hopefully we can give these six games our all because we need to get back up there and it's where we belong.
“Obviously you'd rather have that back-end momentum rather than the start. But the main thing is just taking it one game at a time.
“It's something we can learn from the last few weeks - take nothing for granted, win each small battle. Then, hopefully they all add up to qualification.”
How’s Stat!
Grace Road is a happy hunting ground for the Lightning, who have won there on 12 occasions. The Red Rose have only ever lost two T20 matches at the Uptonsteel County Ground.
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