Saturday, 2 July 2016

Preview: Nottinghamshire v Lancashire - Specsavers CC


Neil Wagner will play in his final match for Lancashire before meeting up with New Zealand, as the Red Rose prepare for their Specsavers County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on Sunday.

Ashley Giles' side extended their lead at the top of Division One in their last four-day outing against Middlesex to nine points after a high-scoring and rain-affected draw at Lord's. Alviro Petersen hit 191 in Lancashire's first and only innings of 513, but a flat batting track and a final-day washout resigned the game to an inevitable draw.

Nottinghamshire also drew their last Championship match against Warwickshire, leaving them seventh in the first division, having played more games than any other team (9). Lancashire were due to have James Anderson available for this match, but the England seamer is being rested ahead of the Test series against Pakistan with a shoulder injury.

However, Stuart Broad remains available for Notts and he has been named in a 13-man squad alongside South-African leg-spinner, Imran Tahir. Wagner will be hoping to sign off in the same manner in which he started life at Lancashire, after the Kiwi paceman took 11 wickets on his debut against Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford in Lancashire's first Championship match of the season.

Wagner's career-best match haul of 11-111 included first-innings figures of 6-66, the best figures by a Lancashire player on debut since 1923. He then took another five wickets (5-45) in Nottinghamshire's second innings to guide the Red Rose to victory in the 2016 curtain raiser, one of three victories secured by the Division One leaders at the halfway stage in their campaign.


Notts captain and wicketkeeper Chris Read could make a return to action after five weeks on the sidelines with a hand injury, reinforced by the international class of Broad and Tahir in the bowling department. On paper, Nottinghamshire are one of the strongest outfits in the first division, even without Broad's fleeing availability, but the Trent Bridge outfit have managed only one win in nine matches this season in red-ball cricket.

Mick Newell's side are without victory since their first game of the season against Surrey at home and since then they have suffered four defeats. More recently, this poor run in four-day cricket has included a 228-run defeat at the hands of Surrey at The Oval and a win for Hampshire by 69 runs at Southampton.

Steven Croft remains behind the stumps in the absence of Alex Davies and Jos Buttler, as Lancashire name the same 12-man squad that travelled to North London for the Middlesex match. Tom Bailey remains absent with a side strain, while Simon Kerrigan is also out of action due to a small back injury, one that has given 19-year-old spinner, Matthew Parkinson, an opportunity to show what he is capable of in the First Team.

Nottinghamshire 13-man squad: Chris Read (c/wk), Stuart Broad, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Jake Libby, Ben Kitt, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Greg Smith, Imran Tahir, Brendan Taylor, Riki Wessels.

Lancashire 12-man squad: Steven Croft (c/wk), Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Haseeb Hameed, Kyle Jarvis, Liam Livingstone, Matthew Parkinson, Alviro Petersen, Luke Procter, Tom Smith, Neil Wagner.

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