County Championship Essentials: Lancashire v Northamptonshire

Match times, streaming information, tickets and travel, team news, weather forecast, form, predictions and everything else you need to know ahead of the latest round of the County Championship...

Fixture: Lancashire v Northamptonshire

Venue: Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester

Dates: Thursday, April 15, 2021 - Sunday, April 18, 2021

Start time: 11am (session times have been altered during the first three days to cater for a pause between 2.50pm and 4.10pm on Saturday for the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral)

What's the lowdown?

Both sides were involved in high-scoring draws in the first round of fixtures: Lancashire had been due to face Sussex at Hove until an infestation of leatherjacket larvae on the outfield forced a switch to Emirates Old Trafford. Northamptonshire, rather less strangely, took on Kent at Wantage Road.

Oddly, given the time of year, wickets were hard to come by, with just 43 falling out of a possible 80 across both matches. The counties have last played one another in red-ball cricket in 2019, when they were promoted from Division Two of the County Championship.

Who's in form?

There were hundreds for Ricardo Vasconcelos and Rob Keogh in Northamptonshire's draw with Kent, albeit two very different knocks. Vasconcelos rocketed along in making 154 from just 209 deliveries, while Keogh - coming to the crease at 135 for 4 - batted for 280 balls for his 124.

Lancashire's first innings against Sussex was also centred around a big hundred from a key player: captain and overseas player Dane Vilas made 189 after striding to the middle at 41 for 3. Rob Jones and Alex Davies also passed fifty in a match dominated by the batsmen.

Last five first-class matches (most recent first)

Lancashire: DWDDW

Northamptonshire: DDWLL

Head-to-head first-class record

Total matches: 132

Lancashire wins:53

Northamptonshire wins: 18

Draws: 61

Abandoned: 2

What's the team news?

Lancashire: There are no new injury concerns for Lancashire, with head coach, Glen Chapple, expecting to select a similar XI to the one which drew at home to Sussex.

George Balderson (abdominal strain), Richard Gleeson (back) and Luke Wells (hamstring) remain absent through injury while Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone (both IPL), and England seamer Jimmy Anderson are unavailable.

Lancashire squad: Dane Vilas (c), Tom Bailey, Josh Bohannon, Steven Croft, Alex Davies, Tom Hartley, Keaton Jennings, Rob Jones, Danny Lamb, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Parkinson, Luke Wood 

Northamptonshire: 

The visitors have been forced into three changes from the stalemate with Kent. 

Wayne Parnell links up with the group having completed Covid-19 protocols, with Luke Procter and Saif Zaib also returning.

Charlie Thurston is out with a back injury picked up against Kent while Alex Wakely is absent for personal reasons.

Northamptonshire squad: Gareth Berg, Nathan Buck, Ben Curran, Emilio Gay, Rob Keogh, Simon Kerrigan, Wayne Parnell, Luke Procter, Adam Rossington, Ben Sanderson, Tom Taylor, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Saif Zaib

Latest Lancashire news: Click here

Latest Northamptonshire news: Click here

Who's said what?

Lancashire's assistant coach, Mark Chilton, was full of praise for the squad following their promising start against Sussex, stating: "It wasn’t just Sussex. In the two weeks prior to that, there was a lot of good stuff going on from a lot of people. It wasn’t just the eleven that were on the park. We have to manage players through a busy period - five weeks on the trot.

"We all know how hard you have to work at Emirates Old Trafford to get results. We will think hard about the team we pick, have a look at the pitch and see what the weather is like. But we’re all very confident that there are 14, 15, 16 players who will all make key contributions to this side over the next few weeks."

Northamptonshire head coach David Ripley was impressed with the manner in which Vasconcelos and Keogh got the campaign off to a fine start with opening game centuries "They were quite contrasting knocks actually," he said.

"Ricardo was straight into his work against the new ball, they perhaps didn’t bowl well at him initially and he was racing along at a T20 rate. Rob had to work really hard when he first went in and you could see him grow in confidence as his innings went on."

What's the weather forecast?

No rain (and, more importantly, no snow) is expected in Manchester over the next four days. Conditions are forecast to be sunny and still, with temperatures peaking around 13 degrees celcius on Sunday.

Keep up to date with the MetOffice’s rolling forecast for Emirates Old Trafford: Click here

How do I follow the match?

TV/stream: Lancashire will offer live coverage of the match via the Match Centre on their website: Click here

All County Championship matches are also available via the ECB's central hub: Click here

The matches can also be viewed on mobile via the ECB app.

Radio: BBC Local Radio and the BBC Sport website will carry ball-by-ball radio commentary of the game. 

Digital: The Cricketer will carry live scorecards and daily updates from every County Championship match in 2021, as well as the latest breaking news from around the counties and exclusive features. Visit our County Hub for more. 

Going to the game?

Tickets: This match is to be played behind closed doors owing to Covid-19 restrictions. Lancashire memberships are available here.

Travel: Not applicable owing to Covid-19 restrictions.

Prediction?

Lancashire may well have beaten Sussex had the weather not taken time out of the game, while Dane Vilas believes he is batting as well as ever. The Red Rose county still have Matt Parkinson at their disposal to bring back into the fold. Northamptonshire are a fine red-ball side these days, however, and will represent a stern test. Home win.

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