WORCESTERSHIRE host Lancashire in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy today (10.45) for the two sides' first meeting in the competition since Andrew Hall's last-over heroics in the 2003 semi-final.

The South African, then one of Worcestershire's overseas players, bowled a double-wicket maiden to hand his side a tense six-run victory and a place in the final.

However, today's meeting will be a different affair now the competition has been restructured into two conferences with the teams playing for league points rather than a sudden death-style knockout.

Worcestershire skipper Vikram Solanki came through last week's County Championship loss against Somerset unscathed after suffering a minor fracture to a finger and should continue to lead the side.

Fellow England internationals Gareth Batty and Kabir Ali should both feature too, but Lancashire's Jimmy Anderson and Andrew Flintoff are not free to play county cricket until May 3 and 7 respectively.

However, Lancashire's third England man, Sajid Mahmood, is free to play and will be in buoyant mood after being selected to play for England `A' against Sri Lanka.

Lancashire won their opening C&G fixture against Derbyshire with youngster Tom Smith, who should play today, taking 3-8.

But County director of cricket Steve Rhodes is encouraging his players to concentrate on getting their own game in order, rather than worrying about the opposition.

He said: "All opposition are tough, but any team can have a good day or a bad day so we will just be looking at our own performances.

"If we can play with the same intensity that we had when we beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge last weekend when we play Lancashire, we will be a difficult side to beat. We are not too worried about the opposition, it is more about making sure our game is our `A' game.

"We have no special plans for their players, I have looked at some footage of them and it is clear to me that we will have to bowl straight to them as most of their batsmen enjoy a bit of width.

"We'll try to bowl nice tight lines and I'm pretty sure if we can do that, we will be able to control them."