Lizzie Scott spoke of her delight after helping the Northern Diamonds get back to winning ways in emphatic style against the Sunrisers at Chelmsford today.

The seamer returned a superb 2-27 from 10 overs, helping new ball partner Jess Woolston, who also struck twice, put the skids under the Sunrisers early on.

After electing to bat, they were bowled out for just 157 before Lauren Winfield-Hill’s eye-catching 51 ensured a five-wicket win with 21.3 overs to spare.

The Diamonds bounced back from Saturday’s defeat against Central Sparks at Worcester, and the champions have now won two from three at the start of this season’s Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

“As a team, we don’t really dwell on past things,” said England Under 19s quick Scott. 

“We use them as learnings, and I think we did really well to transfer that defeat into something a lot more positive and put our foot down. Hopefully we’ll continue with that.

“Obviously with our amazing season last year, we’re almost the team to beat. So we need to keep that momentum going.”

On her own performance, Scott said: “I’m delighted. I feel I’m still quite new into the team, so it feels really good to get figures like that.

“I love bowling with Wooly – we work really well together as a partnership. We’ve been talking a lot about that, how to build bowling partnerships as well as batting ones. 

“Because we’re quite similar bowlers, we manage to build a lot of pressure on the batters. Especially with the left and right-hand combination today, they were struggling to get us away. 

“The pressure was there from both ends, which led to the wickets we managed to take.”

The Diamonds avenged a pre-season defeat to the Sunrisers, who have still only ever won one match in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, which came in the opening fixture of this season a week ago on Saturday against Southern Vipers.

Scott said: “Sunrisers’ pre-season was amazing. Grace Scrivens scored three hundreds on the trot, so we were definitely wary of her as a player and we know how hard they’ve been working.”

Both Scott and assistant coach Kyle Coetzer hailed Winfield-Hill’s contribution, this fifty her eighth in 10 innings in this competition dating back to the start of last season.

As Coetzer spoke, he was being pelted with grapes from a buoyant dressing room. One got him good and proper on the side of the head.

“Well, they were hitting the stumps a lot in the field, so it’s no surprise they hit my head,” he quipped.

Kyle Coetzer

Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images. Kyle Coetzer.

“Lauren’s a very good player. She plays proper cricket shots. It’s not complicated. She hits back through the ball and hits good balls for four. 

“She was quite dismissive today, and she gives the group a lot of belief with the way she plays. 

“If she keeps playing like this, I believe she has got plenty there to work with on the international scene. As I say, she’s hitting good balls for four. Where do you bowl to someone who’s doing that?

“I would also like to mention that she took a couple of outstanding catches stood up to the stumps today, so she’s doing it in all departments.”

Coetzer continued: “We’ve got to play good cricket for long periods of time, and that was something which let us down the other day. It was nice to see a response in the first half from the bowlers. We were disciplined and created chances.

“I think the opening pair bowled exceptionally well. I think Wooly had figures of 2-8 from her first five overs. To be as disciplined as that against a dangerous top order, we couldn’t have asked for anything more.

“Momentum’s really key, and we made a couple of good stops in the field early on. Had one of those gone for four, it might have changed that momentum and the batters get away.”

The former Scotland men’s captain also heaped praise on skipper Hollie Armitage, adding: “What Hollie did today as a captain was outstanding. She chopped and changed her bowlers at just the right times. It was seriously good.”

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