Yorkshire claimed a mightily impressive Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory over Durham at Banks Homes Riverside today, one set up by brilliance with the ball from Sarah Glenn and Jess Jonassen and finished off by the skill of Lauren Winfield-Hill and Erin Thomas in pursuit of 194.
The White Rose county won a third game in nine in this competition having bowled Durham out for 193 and chased for the loss of four wickets with 15 balls to spare.
Experienced spin duo Glenn and Jonassen, a pair with almost 300 combined international appearances to their names for England and Australia, puts the skids under the Durham innings with five wickets as they slipped to 64-6 on a used pitch.
Glenn returned 3-40 from 10 overs of leg-spin in her first One-Day Cup appearance of the summer following injury, while Jonassen continued her sparkling 2026 campaign with 2-18 from 10 overs of left-arm spin. Opener Winfield-Hill and second-wicket partner Thomas then underpinned the chase by sharing 122.
Captain Winfield-Hill hit 65 off 107 balls, and 19-year-old Thomas’s 67 off 112 represented her first Tier 1 fifty and senior career best score. Both hit six fours. Yorkshire claimed four points to add to previous wins over The Blaze and Lancashire.
Grace Thompson (40), Trudy Johnson (32 not out) and Katie Levick (31) had combined to recover the hosts, who had elected to bat.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Erin Thomas, pictured with assistant coach Kevin Sharp, was outstanding with the bat today.
The latter pair sharing 62 for the last wicket. It was a record 10th-wicket partnership by any team in the two years of this competition.
Ines Blackwell also struck twice with her seam for Yorkshire, while spinners Claudie Cooper and Maddie Ward claimed a wicket apiece.
All five of the Glenn and Jonassen wickets were bowled, and Durham innings was a tale of two key periods which last approximately 17 overs apiece.
In the first 17.2, the hosts lost their first six wickets, which in the end was key to preventing them from claiming a fifth win in 10 games. Instead, they suffered a fifth defeat.
Then, in the last 16.5, Johnson and Levick gave their side real hope thanks to their record-breaking partnership.
Blackwell made the initial breakthrough when she had Mia Rogers caught and bowled low down – 18-1 in the fifth over – before Glenn excelled in her first appearance of the season in this competition after her broken finger.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Sarah Glenn broke open the Durham innings with three wickets.
She bowled Hollie Armitage, Mady Villiers and Emily Windsor, all playing back. Villiers chopped on cutting.
Jonassen then bowled her fellow Aussie overseas Heather Graham and Bess Heath with beauties, which both clipped off-stump.
Although Yorkshire would have bitten your hand off at the start of this game if you’d have offered them 193 all out after Durham won the toss and elected to bat, they will have been frustrated with the way the innings finished.
Opener Emma Marlow, with 39, initially steadied the ship alongside innings top-scorer Thompson, who pulled Glenn over wide long-on for six.
In truth, there was little sign of aggression from the lower order, just sensible accumulation. And they did start to find gaps. One Levick leading edge, for example, landed just out of bowler Ward’s reach.
But, credit to them, they batted nicely.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Two wickets for Yorkshire’s exceptional Aussie Jess Jonassen.
After Marlow chipped Cooper’s off-spin to mid-wicket, breaking a 40-run stand – 104-7 – striker Thompson was run out by a direct hit from Ami Campbell at the non-striker’s end as she tried to steal a single.
Blackwell struck again when she yorked Abi Glen, leaving the score at 131-9.
Johnson and Levick then united to take their side within sight of 200, something which seemed highly unlikely when Glenn and Jonassen were weaving their magic.
Both hit two boundaries apiece before Levick drilled a low return catch to Ward in the final over of the innings. Levick’s 31 represented a career best score in all senior cricket.
Campbell was then elevated up to open the batting – something she would have done but for rain when these two sides should have met here in the Vitality Blast last Tuesday.
And she hit two boundaries off Johnson in an opening over which went for 11.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Lauren Winfield-Hill excelled at the top of the order today as her side won for the third time in this season’s One-Day Cup, claiming four points for the victory.
Unfortunately she found deep square-leg against the same bowler in the third over, falling for 13 – 19-1.
But Winfield-Hill and Thomas advanced Yorkshire’s cause, and decisively so.
There wasn’t a flurry of boundaries, although Winfield-Hill did beautifully drill the off-spin of Villiers down the ground for four early in her innings.
And Thomas twice hoisted Thompson’s seam over long-on for boundaries as the White Rose reached the 25-over mark at 103-1, needing 91 more. Winfield-Hill reached her fifty first, off 90 balls, before Thomas, who played an innings beyond her years, got there off 94.
Unfortunately, Winfield-Hill drilled Thompson’s pace to cover moments after Thomas’s milestone, leaving Yorkshire at 141-2 after 35 overs. But it was too little, too late for Durham even though Villiers also bowled Thomas. They suffered their fifth defeat in 10.
Jonassen also fell to Marlow before the victory was confirmed in the 48th over as Ward hit the winning single.
