Lancashire will travel to Headingley for the 275th first-class Roses match on Sunday, entering their Specsavers County Championship encounter with Yorkshire as the leaders of the first division.
Ashley Giles' side collected their third County Championship win of the season when they beat Surrey by an innings and 96 runs inside three days, their third successive victory at Emirates Old Trafford in the four-day contest, after beating Nottinghamshire and Hampshire.
Aside from the mammoth margin of victory against Surrey, there were several individual positives to draw from the match. Tom Smith made his first Championship appearance in more than 12 months following a potentially career-ending back injury, scoring 59 at the top of the innings and sharing partnership with Haseeb Hameed worth 99 runs.
The standout performances came from Kyle Jarvis, who claimed his best figures in a Lancashire shirt (6-70) before finishing the game with his best ever match figures, claiming 11-119 against Surrey, who were bowled out for 107 in their second innings.
There was also a superb century from Alviro Petersen who hit 105 from only 108 balls to demoralise the Surrey bowlers, with Jarvis and Simon Kerrigan adding 63 runs for the final wicket, as Lancashire made 394 in their first and only innings.
The current two-time county champions have started the season strongly, beating Surrey by an innings earlier this month, but four draws in five matches means that Yorkshire are in fourth place, 19 points behind their rivals.
Lancashire welcomed the return of Jos Buttler in their defeat to Durham Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast, but the England wicketkeeper-batsman will not take part in the Roses match, with Giles insisting that he rests after a gruelling winter schedule, followed by his recent commitments with Mumbai Indians.
The last time these old rivals met in the four-day contest, it was Yorkshire who claimed the bragging rights. A magnificent double-hundred from Adam Lyth (251) and a brisk 159 from Adil Rashid saw Yorkshire score 610/6 declared in their first and only innings at Old Trafford, with Lancashire slipping to an innings and 18-run defeat on their way to relegation in 2014.
In the reverse fixture, Lancashire enjoyed a much more even share of a rain-affected draw at Headingley, with Smith taking 5-49 in helping the Red Rose to finish the match in the stronger position.
Lancashire 12-man squad: Steven Croft (c), Tom Bailey, Karl Brown, Alex Davies (wk), Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Liam Livingstone, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith, Neil Wagner.
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