Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Sterre Kalis bats for Yorkshire in the ongoing Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Sterre Kalis says Yorkshire are desperate to end the summer on a high this weekend following a “tough” loss earlier in the season in the Vitality Blast final.
The White Rose are in their second final of 2025 on Sunday, the Metro Bank One-Day Cup showpiece against Glamorgan at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
It comes just less than two months since they were beaten in the T20 final by Middlesex at Wantage Road.
This season has been primarily about development and preparation as the county head into Tier 1 in 2026. Results have not been the be all and end all.
Now, though, Sunday is a game which does really matter, just as that aforementioned Middlesex game did.
“It’s obviously really important for us,” said Netherlands international Kalis, the star of Sunday’s semi-final win over Middlesex at Radlett with a determined 65 not out in pursuit of a 195-target.
Picture by John Clifton/SWPix.com. Sterre Kalis and Ami Campbell at the crease together for Yorkshire in T20 cricket this summer.
“We’ve tried to learn a lot this year and give people opportunities. But, ultimately, we also want to win.
“Missing out in the T20 final was a tough day for us, and all we want to do now is win this 50-over comp. We’ve got such a good team. Everyone is contributing in bits in every single game, and different people are standing up.
“We’re really excited to play another final again, and hopefully we can win it.”
Kalis will play her 48th competitive match of the summer across both List A and T20 cricket, for either Yorkshire, her country, Hundred team Birmingham Phoenix or Tier 1 county the Bears, where she has been on loan.
Add in friendlies here and there, and she has played well over 50 times since late March.
With that in mind, there will not have been many – if any – busier female cricketers in the English game this summer.
Picture by Gareth Copley/Getty Images. Sterre Kalis has played for Yorkshire, the Bears, Netherlands and Birmingham Phoenix this summer.
It’s quite the workload for the recently turned 26-year-old, but she has loved every minute.
“I have played a lot of cricket, but I feel like I get better the more I play. It’s a lot different to just training.
“Every game is different, obviously, and you learn different things each game.
“I’ve loved being in all the different environments – my loan spell with the Bears, for example. But I’m really glad I’m back at Yorkshire now and trying to help us win a trophy.”
A standout day at New Road on Sunday could even see the classy right-hander top the 6,000 run-mark in her senior career, combining both List A and T20 cricket.
In all, she has scored 5,840, with 1,094 of those coming this summer.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire head coach Rich Pyrah has been managing Sterre Kalis’s workloads during the last two weeks, determined to keep her fresh for finals cricket in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
“It’s great to have Sterre back,” said coach Rich Pyrah, ahead of the final.
“She’s not been with us all year, pretty much.
“She showed her class in a tricky situation in that semi-final (Middlesex), and it’s what we’ve missed through this 50-over period – that high quality in the middle order.
“You see her hit those shots over extra cover and mid-off, and there’s no better bat-swing than her’s.
“It wasn’t an easy wicket. It was nibbling around a little bit, and it was slow. Some of those shots she played at the end, that was high-class batting.”
Even with the positives of playing a weight of cricket – Kalis’s game clearly having progressed impressively in the last year or two – Yorkshire are mindful of not overdoing things.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Lauren Winfield-Hill will captain Yorkshire in Sunday’s final against Glamorgan at Worcester.
Kalis was pulled out of last Thursday’s Bears’ Tier 1 One-Day Cup game against Durham, which was actually washed out without a ball bowled.
She is playing for the Bears against Lancashire at Sale today, but she won’t be allowed to play for them against Somerset at Taunton on Saturday.
Pyrah added: “Sterre loves her cricket, and playing a lot has been good for her.
“But there have been stages where she’s been tired. She was pretty cooked for that Blast Finals Day.
“She’s had a good year, and fair play to her that she’s been up and down the motorway a lot. And it shows her commitment to Yorkshire as well by coming back up and playing for us whenever she can. But she’d played two games the week before that Finals Day, and that wasn’t ideal looking back.
“So I made a decision that she was going to be fresh for us against Middlesex, and it paid off. She went and won us the game, which is what we wanted.”
