Lancashire win first sell-out match in One-Day Cup at new Farington home

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 Stadium.

A sellout crowd at the £20m venue near Leyland saw Lancashire make it two wins out of three in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup as they chased down Kent's total of 223 all out with 13 balls to spare.

After Mitch Stanley had taken three Kent wickets for 43, wicketkeeper Matty Hurst provided a platform for the Red Rose reply with 55.

Marcus Harris and Rocky Flintoff then helped finish things off with innings of 47 and 41 not out as Lancashire completed back-to-back Group A wins following Sunday's 21-run success at Leicestershire. Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond was the top scorer of a historic day with 56.

Lancashire head coach Steven Croft said: "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 – but we were still confident of chasing those runs down."

As for conditions at the new venue, Croft added: "It was pretty hard. 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. I thought the batters then judged the whole chase really well.”

Lancashire return to Farington on Thursday for their next match in the competition against Notts Outlaws.

The venue will also stage two Lancashire Women's fixtures in their equivalent competition in September.