NICK FRIEND runs through the standout performers after the first two rounds of action in the special-edition women's 50-over competition
One of Sunrisers’ three full-time professionals, the wicketkeeper-batsman and captain fell one run short of a century in what was ultimately a lone hand in defeat against South East Stars.
Having watched seven wickets fall around her in pursuit of 290 – including the England pair of Fran Wilson and Mady Villiers, she was the eighth batsman out, running past a delivery from Bryony Smith to be stumped for 99.
Disappointing though it may have been not to have gone through to three figures, Carr’s effort was exactly what director of cricket Danni Warren and head coach Trevor Griffin will have wanted to see from one of their retainer-holders, especially in the injury-enforced absence of Cordelia Griffith.
One of four centrally contracted players in this composite side, it should come as little surprise that England’s stalwarts have dominated the opening rounds of Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy action. One of the reasons for the game’s major domestic restructure was a recognition of the widening gap between the international pool and county circuit.
And with Wyatt one of the most destructive players on the planet, she took her natural aggression into her Southern Vipers outings, making 66 against Sunrisers and 53 in victory over Western Storm. For England, the 29-year-old’s return to form comes at an opportune moment; prior to lockdown, she endured a poor T20 World Cup.
A shoutout as well for Wyatt’s teenage teammate Charlie Dean, who made an unbeaten 60 against Storm and took two wickets with her off-spin against Sunrisers.
In a frustrating year for women’s cricket, Nat Sciver has squeezed out of it all she possibly could. Lisa Keightley’s appointment as England head coach has seen the allrounder take on more responsibility with both bat and ball, making three half centuries in four T20 World Cup appearances.
And thus, it should have been no shock to see her taking her pre-coronavirus form into the new domestic competition.
Hardly required in Northern Diamonds’ first of two wins as Hollie Armitage and Lauren Winfield chased down 145 in double-quick time, she came to the fore at Emirates Riverside, scoring the competition’s first-ever hundred in a nine-run win over Lightning.
Amara Carr made 99 for Sunrisers in a losing cause
Like Sciver, Heather Knight has been in fine form since Keightley’s arrival as head coach. The England captain transferred the quality of her international displays at the start of the year seamlessly to the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.
In her first game, she set a supreme example to those around her as she made an unbeaten 91, chasing 167 with total ease against a youthful South East Stars side, several of whom would have benefited simply from watching Knight go about her work.
For the same reason, therefore, she will have been immensely frustrated by the manner of her dismissal in a thriller against Southern Vipers. The cornerstone of a chase that had unravelled from 149 for 1 to 154 for 3, she was bowled by Tara Norris, with a collapse following that saw Storm finish 22 runs short.
The question was asked as soon as Kathryn Bryce – the older of the two cricketing sisters – was named among Lightning’s full-time retainer-holders. Would she look to follow in the footsteps of Kirstie Gordon as a Scotland-born England international?
Bryce’s early performances in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy will have done little to quash those mutterings.
Albeit in a losing cause against Northern Diamonds, her individual display was a Roy of the Rovers effort; she took 5 for 29 with the ball, including the wickets of Lauren Winfield, Hollie Armitage, Sciver, Sterre Kalis and Katherine Brunt, before adding an unbeaten 71 with the bat. At just 22 years of age, her ceiling is enormous.
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The younger Bryce hasn’t started badly either. She is the second wicketkeeper picked in this side, following Carr. Only Knight and Wyatt have more runs in the competition’s opening salvo than the Scottish 20-year-old, who followed 52 against Thunder with 57 against Northern Diamonds.
In both cases, she has ended up on the losing team – first by four runs, then by nine. Noticeably, her runs have come at a slower rate than any of the other 14 top scorers, but on both occasions the maturity of her innings-building has kept Lightning in with a chance.
Danni Wyatt has been in good form for Southern Vipers
Recent times have not been the easiest of Sophia Dunkley’s career. Still just 22, she played the most recent of her ten T20Is for England in March 2019, before enduring a desperately poor Kia Super League campaign with Lancashire Thunder.
Her return to form for South East Stars against Sunrisers was hugely timely ahead of an international series against West Indies.
Dunkley has been part of England’s enlarged training squad since they resumed training in late June and, in front of Lisa Keightley who was present at Beckenham to watch Dunkley make a match-winning 97, she did all she could to press her case for a recall. She has also taken three wickets with her leg-spin in the opening two games.
Georgia Hennessy sits alongside Norris and Kathryn Bryce on five wickets so far in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. The 23-yerar-old seamer ran through South East Stars on the first morning of the tournament, accounting for Alice Capsey, Aylish Cranstone, Alice Davidson-Richards and Freya Davies.
She is yet to fire with the bat, but she comes with previous. Opening the batting for Devon last year, she struck an unbeaten 78 against an attack featuring Anya Shrubsole and Lauren Bell.
After a long summer without cricket, Katherine Brunt was back on it straight away in the first game of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. She begun with a five-wicket haul against Central Sparks and is the top wicket-taker as she heads back into the England bubble after two games.
Her six scalps have come at just 8.83 apiece and at an economy of 2.94. Now 35 years of age, rumblings around potential retirement come with the territory at this point in the career of a fast bowler. Speaking to The Cricketer during lockdown, however, she was typically bullish.
“There has been a conversation along the lines of: ‘Would you like to play in the Commonwealth Games?’ I mean, you ask anyone that and they’re going to say yes,” she said. “Given the opportunity, I’d love to be a part of it.
“That’s another two years down the line – can I do that? I’ll be edging closer to 40 as a seamer. But that carrot has been dangled and I am someone who, given a challenge, I’m going to do it. If the challenge is against you, I’ll beat you.”
Katherine Brunt began her Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign with a five-wicket haul
Only Brunt has taken more wickets in the tournament thus far than Tara Norris. The left-arm seamer picked up four of her five scalps in the space of 19 balls – a match-winning contribution.
The door had been nudged ajar by captain Georgia Adams, who had her opposite number Sophie Luff caught. However, once she sensed her opportunity, she grabbed it with both hands.
In the space of seven overs, Storm had collapsed from 149 for 1 to 166 for 6, with Norris responsible for bundling out Heather Knight, Georgia Hennessy, Katie George and Alex Griffiths. Given the two sides’ strength, Vipers’ win could be an enormous result for the shape of the group.
All eyes are on Issy Wong, the 18-year-old speedster of whom so much is hoped. She went wicketless in her first game as Northern Diamonds beat her Central Sparks side, but she proved lethal second time around.
Bowling first against Thunder, Wong had Alex Hartley’s side 18 for 4 after 8.4 overs, having run through the Lancashire-based team’s top order. Laura Marshall was bowled by the first ball of the match, before Emma Lamb and Ellie Threlkeld followed cheaply. There were 47 dot-balls in a ten-over spell that cost just 26 runs. Some talent.
And those who missed out: Charlie Dean, Georgia Adams, Sophie Ecclestone, Marie Kelly
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