Cricket may not be suffering from one-day fatigue, but a surfeit of the 50-over game signed the death warrant of the Benson and Hedges Cup. The competition bows out in its 31st year this season, to be replaced by a series of mid-summer slogs next year. It is perhaps appropriate that the most successful team in the competition's history is through to the semi-finals.

Lancashire, whose dominance of one-day cricket in the early 1990's bought them their fourth B&H title, face Warwickshire in Friday's semi-final. Neither side qualified the easy way, losing two matches each in the group stages, qualifying as third place 'lucky losers'. The rewards for both were tricky quarter-final matches away from home. Lancashire edged out Leicestershire in a low-scoring affair at Grace Road, with their cross-Pennine veteran David Byas hitting 91. A batsman at the other end of his career bought Warwickshire glory. Ian Bell, widely tipped to play for England this summer, made 85 in Warwickshire's defeat of Sussex.

Lancashire may have lost John Crawley in the most protracted of contract wrangles, but they still boast a formidable batting line-up. Stuart Law, who left Essex under a cloud last year, is due a score. Immensely talented, one wonders how many Tests Law would have played if he had been born anything other than Australian. Although Byas is injured, Mark Chilton gives the side some grit, while Graham Lloyd has been in form this season after being virtually ignored last year. Skipper Warren Hegg is capable of anything, and Andrew Flintoff will be eligible to play. Glen Chapple is often bumped up the order and given a licence to slog. Chapple also offers accuracy with the ball, which has been supplemented by John Wood and Peter Martin. Teenager Kyle Hogg has been a revelation, picking up wickets at will and capable of chipping in with useful runs. He will have his eye on an Academy spot this winter.

Shaun Pollock has settled back down well at Edgbaston. Warwickshire skipper Michael Powell, who had a distinctly average winter in South Africa, hit a century and a fifty early in the competition. Nick Knight has started the season magnificently, indicating a summer long occupation of the crease may be on the cards. Whatever his failings at Test level, Knight remains England's best one-day batsman by some distance. The interest in Bell will not cease until he is given his chance at the highest level, and a semi-final is the perfect place to show off his prodigious talent and uncomplicated technique. Emerging too, is Jim Troughton. The 23-year-old left-hander hit an entertaining century in Warwickshire's last championship match. Pollock provides much of Warwickshire's ammunition with the ball, and Ashley Giles should play.

Old Trafford pitches so far this summer have been good, and clement weather will give the stroke-makers (of whom there are many) the best chance to dominate. Presuming the track is hard and fast, Flintoff and Pollock should extract pace and bounce. Lancashire's home advantage should tell, but Warwickshire are not incapable of travelling and Lancashire not immune to collapsing in front of the faithful. In either case, both sides are capable of offering the sort of game that the competition deserves.

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