MATCH PREVIEW: Surrey v Lancashire, Women's Vitality Blast
Match Preview as we travel to the Kia Oval to face Surrey in the Vitality Blast opener
Surrey v Lancashire Thunder
Women’s Vitality Blast
Friday May 22, 2026, 2.15pm
The Kia Oval
A sprinkling of stardust in the Thunder team with Meg Lanning and Friday afternoon opener in the capital. What a way to start the Vitality Blast for Lancashire!
The Red Rose travel to the Kia Oval to face defending Blast champions Surrey from 2.15pm in an opener which forms part of a daily double header with the men’s teams of Surrey and Lancashire. They start at 6.30pm.
Lancashire will hand a debut at the top of the order to Australian overseas batting superstar Lanning, a player who has won everything there is to win on the international stage.
She will bid to help the county complete the trophy set.
Last year, they won the Vitality County T20 Cup and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup titles. For them, the Blast is the missing piece in the jigsaw.
This is actually the venue of the July 17 Finals Day.
Lanning will link up with her old Ashes adversary Kate Cross in Lancashire’s team.
Fast bowler Cross said: “I played with Meg when I played over at the (Perth) Scorchers in the winter of 2018/2019.
“I've obviously been on the very, very wrong end of some of her incredible innings, so I'm just looking forward to seeing what she can bring to our group.
“We’ve been a little bit light with the bat this summer, so if you’re adding Meg Lanning to that, then it’s a huge boost for us.
“Hopefully she’s in red hot form and set the Oval alight on Friday.”
Cross’s comments about being light with the bat come after the Red Rose have won only two of their opening eight Metro Bank One-Day Cup matches, losing six. They actually sit bottom of the table at the halfway point.
“I think sometimes a change of format can just come at the right time,” said Cross. “It felt like it came at the wrong time for us last year, but we've worked really hard on our T20 throughout the winter and we're really looking forward to getting going.
“It'll be quite nice to probably park the 50-over stuff for a little bit and go out there and have some fun. We’re looking forward to getting the reds back on again.”
Surrey beat Warwickshire in an Oval final last July.
They are coached by Johann Myburgh and captained in this format by opening batter Bryony Smith, who actually stepped down as full-time captain at the start of the year.
Surrey have not signed an overseas player for the Blast, and they will be without Alice Capsey, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who are all on England T20 duty alongside Lancashire’s Sophie Ecclestone.
Opposition player to watch
Surrey will be shorn of the services of two players who topped 300 runs in last season’s Blast in Australian Grace Harris, who has not returned to the Kia Oval for 2026, and England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge. The latter is in England’s squad for the ongoing series against New Zealand and then the subsequent T20 World Cup.
That means more responsibility falls on the shoulders of batting captain Bryony Smith.
Smith stepped down as full-time captain at Surrey ahead of the new season, handing the 50-over leadership duties over to wicketkeeper-batter Kira Chathli, who will be in the home team on Friday.
Title-winning Smith, who has retained the T20 leadership, will hope to lift this title for the second year running - and Surrey could do with her runs at the top of the order.
She contributed 246 runs from 14 Blast matches last season, and she has played 10 T20Is for England in her career - the last of which was in September 2024.
Smith has had a disruptive start to the season through injury and a lack of form. Now would be the perfect time for her to turn that around.
Previous meeting
These two counties played each other three times in T20 matches last season. Surrey won both the Blast matches after Lancashire had beaten them in the final of the Vitality County T20 Cup at Taunton at the end of May to win their first of two summer titles.
The last of the three T20 meetings between Surrey and Lancs came at the Kia Oval in mid June, with the hosts triumphing by 53 runs.
Australian all-rounder Grace Harris posted a middle-order 57 off 31 balls to underpin a home total of 171-9, with Sophie Morris’s left-arm spin accounting for two wickets.
Unfortunately, the Thunder reply never got any momentum, and they were bowled out for 118 inside 18 overs.
Opener Emma Lamb top-scored with 64 off 46 balls, but she had to recover things from 32-3. She did that, and the visitors were 102-3 in the 14th over.
However, they lost their last seven wickets for 16 runs, with the seam of Rhianna MacDonald-Gay finishing with 4-14 from 3.3 overs.
Lancashire Thunder & Lancashire Lightning: T20 Blast Tickets
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Lancashire Lightning and Thunder are back with 4 double header match days, including the Roses T20 and this summer is set up to be unmissable.
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