Will Williams produced figures of 6-24 to dismantle Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford, the ground he called home for four seasons. The New Zealand-born seamer reduced his former club to 134 all out in their first innings, giving Gloucestershire a 78-run lead in this County Championship Division Two fixture.
Williams left Lancashire at the end of the 2025 season despite the club making a strong contract offer to retain him. He signed a three-year deal with Gloucestershire, seeking expanded opportunities across multiple formats.
In 52 appearances for the Red Rose, Williams took 128 wickets, 99 of them in the Championship. He was not a player pushed out. He chose to walk.
Lancashire’s Director of Cricket Performance Mark Chilton made the club’s position clear at the time.
“We are disappointed that Will is going to leave us at the end of the season, despite making a strong contract offer to keep him.”
Mark Chilton, Lancashire departure announcement, August 2025
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Gloucestershire won the toss and batted first on day one. Daaryoush Ahmed scored a maiden first-class half-century, 51 from 120 balls with six fours and a six. His seventh-wicket stand with Sai Kishore added 52 across 21 overs before Ahmed was caught by James Anderson at slip.
George Balderson led Lancashire’s bowling with 4-44, while Anderson added 2-33 from 19 overs. Gloucestershire were bowled out for 212.
Lancashire’s reply lasted 13.5 overs of Williams. He bowled 83 deliveries. 72 of them were dots. Five maidens. An economy of 1.70. The home side were 16-3 by lunch and never recovered. Balderson top-scored with the bat, but Lancashire folded for 134.
Lancashire’s First-Innings Collapse Reaches Eight Matches
This was the eighth consecutive match since May in which Lancashire failed to post a first-innings total above 200. Both teams sit in the bottom two positions in Division Two, with promotion decided long ago. Gloucestershire’s problems are well documented. But Lancashire’s batting has deteriorated into a pattern no one inside that dressing room has been able to break.
Gloucestershire’s second innings added 169. Kamran Dhariwal compiled an unbeaten 44 in a sunlit evening session, pushing the lead past the psychological 200 mark. Balderson again led Lancashire’s response with 4-23 from 13 overs, taking three wickets in one over.
Lancashire began their chase of 247 and reached 25-3 after 8.5 overs at stumps. The match is alive, but the trajectory is not.
Insider Read
Seventy-two dot balls out of 83 deliveries is not a wicket-taking spell. It is a suffocation. Williams spent four years at Lancashire. He knew how Old Trafford behaves in September, knew which batters play across the line early, knew where the seam holds its shape off the surface. A bowler returning to a ground he has trained on since 2022 does not search for the right length. He already has it.
The 6-24 will sit in the record books as career-best figures. But 72 dots out of 83 balls is the number that reveals how completely Williams controlled that innings. He did not need the conditions to misbehave. He needed only to put the ball where he knew they could not score.
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