Alex Lees column

We haven’t spoken about the possibility of playing against Andrew Flintoff at Old Trafford on Friday yet. It has been a busy few days for us, with the Twenty20 against Derbyshire and the ongoing Championship match at Northampton to concentrate on.

It would be exciting to play against him but there’s ten or 11 other players in the Lancashire team, depending on whether he plays or not, that we need to defeat. Junaid Khan looks like he’s bowling brilliantly, for example. But we’re confident of coming out on top.

I suppose there is a chance their lads could be distracted by all the hype that’s surrounding Flintoff – but I doubt it. I certainly know that if a similar situation arose at Yorkshire, it wouldn’t affect our lads. I’m guessing it will be the same in their camp.

If it did happen at Yorkshire and I could choose a legend to come out of retirement, I think I’d want to see Darren Lehmann back – or maybe even one of the old boys like Boycott or Close.

I saw a bit of Lehmann, watching as a youngster at Headingley, and he was a proper player. If you got half the hundreds he did in first-class cricket, you’d have a great career. He was top of the range.

Last Friday night saw me play my first Twenty20 match at Headingley and fortunately I played well, got runs and it was my night as I scored 61 not out in pursuit of 128. I got away okay and scored well in a couple of overs and then you’re rolling in T20.

Prior to Friday, I’d only played two Twenty20s before. So for me, it’s pleasing that I’ve shown I can play in all formats and can put in a performance when your team needs you. I just played proper cricket shots. I got a couple early on with a bit of width and went from there.

After the defeat to Northants, a game we arguably should have won, it was great to get that win on the board. Sometimes scores like that can be tricky to chase, so it was also pleasing for us to be able to get a win in that sort of style.

We’ve said before that Twenty20 is a game of momentum and hopefully we can push on now and get on a run of wins. We’ve got Aaron Finch, who adds to our firepower – and with our bowling, we are confident of forging ahead.

I thought Finchy played beautifully for his 34 in the first innings of the Championship match at Northampton yesterday. Obviously nobody else really got in and made a substantial score but there were good signs from him on a tricky wicket. It showed that he can adapt to all formats.