England Lions past and present Matty Hurst and Mitch Stanley stood out with bat and ball respectively as Lancashire beat Kent by six wickets in the first ever first-team game played at the Red Rose county’s new second home, AO Farington.

Stanley, a fast bowler on England’s radar and who toured with the Lions over the winter, impressed with three for 43 from 10 overs as Kent were bowled out for 223. Their captain and opener Daniel Bell-Drummond top-scored with a determined 56.

Wicketkeeper-batter Hurst, a Lion in the 2024/25 winter, was similarly determined in setting up Lancashire’s chase with 55 off 89 balls, including only two boundaries.

Australian overseas Marcus Harris and Rocky Flintoff then helped finish things off with more expansive innings of 47 and 41 not out. Lancashire have now won two and lost one in Group A, while Kent have lost two and won one. 

On a pitch showing signs of uneven bounce, Kent largely chipped away at the runs, though did elevate Grant Stewart to number six to attack, which he did for 22.

The first three wickets all fell with batter’s looking suspiciously at the pitch, including Stanley claiming a superb one-handed return catch diving forwards after one popped at Sam Northeast.

Stanley’s trio of scalps was supplemented by two each for fellow seamers Tom Bailey, Jack Blatherwick and George Balderson.

Bailey bowled the very first ball in a competitive fixture at this ground, which is a stone’s throw from his birth city of Preston.

It was actually a wide to Ben Dawkins – one of 17. Extras totalling 26 was the third top score in the Kent innings. 

While Bell-Drummond played with great skill, Harry Finch, Stewart and Jaydn Denly all added useful scores in the twenties. Keith Dudgeon bettered them with an unbeaten 31 off 25 to give Kent a late boost.

Lancashire made an understandably watchful start to their chase, Keaton Jennings adding 44 with Hurst before being trapped lbw by Ekansh Singh’s seam in his first over, the 11th of the innings.

The home bowlers certainly extracted more out of the pitch. But, even so, boundaries were at a premium in front of a limited sold-out crowd of 2,000 as part of the venue’s testing phase.

Hurst shared 79 for the second wicket with Josh Bohannon, who contributed 47 like Harris before edging a rising delivery from South African seamer Dudgeon behind – 123 for two in the 31st over.

Hurst reached his fifty off 84 balls shortly afterwards with only one boundary included, a cover drive against the leg-spin of ex-Lancashire spinner Matt Parkinson.

He hit another boundary before drilling Stewart’s seam to mid-off with 147 on the board in the 36th over.

Lancashire needed 51 off 10 overs, with fourth-wicket duo Harris and Flintoff together. And that was the time for controlled acceleration, the pair sharing 69 before the former was stumped off Denly’s spin with the victory line in sight. Lancashire won with 13 balls remaining.

Lancashire head coach Steven Croft said:

“We took the momentum from the last game (Leicestershire, Sunday).

“It’s a new venue for us, but we have trained here a couple of times. The lads were up for the challenge, and to knock it off in style was nice.

“We’d probably have liked to chase 10, 15 or 20 less. There were quite a few extras in there. All in all, we were still confident of chasing those runs down.

“It was pretty hard (conditions). That was the reason for bowling first, to get a feel for it. It had a bit of bounce and carry. It was a bit of an unknown for both sides, and I commend the lads for adjusting and getting on with it.“It’s been great to see Mitch (Stanley) out there playing back-to-back games. I thought the batters then judged the whole chase really well.”

Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond said: 

“We wanted to bat our 50 overs and scrape a few more, but we definitely thought it was a competitive total. It was an interesting wicket, obviously a new ground. 

“Lovely facilities, but the wicket was tricky and a bit up and down at times. The outfield was quick, so it evened itself out in some ways. 

“We wanted to make that score competitive and defend it, but Lancs played well in the end. 

“The guys put in a good fight with the ball, and all game really. We probably didn’t quite take the early wickets that we wanted, which put them in the box seat. It just wasn’t meant to be.“I felt good (with the bat). It was obviously challenging. It was a shame because I was just starting to get going when I get out. Hopefully I can build on this.”

Picture supplied by Dan Adams/Lancashire Cricket.