Picture by Joshua Bowles Media/Kent Cricket: Lauren Winfield-Hill is applauded off the field by her Yorkshire team-mates and coaches after her record-breaking 194 at Canterbury today.
Hundred hero Lauren Winfield-Hill hailed “a pretty complete performance” as Yorkshire beat Kent at Canterbury today to qualify for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup semi-finals.
Captain Winfield-Hill returned from Hundred duty to rack up a record-breaking 194 off 126 balls opening the batting in Yorkshire’s 404-5, to which Kent replied with 125 all out.
Maddie Ward and Erin Thomas both contributed half-centuries, 69 and 54 respectively, before Olivia Thomas accounted for 3-22 from five overs of leg-spin in Kent’s reply. Five of the six bowlers used all struck in this 279 -run triumph.
Fourth-placed Yorkshire have now set up a semi-final with table-toppers Middlesex at Radlett next Sunday.
“Obviously, two or three games recently haven’t quite gone to plan, and I think it was important that we came out firing today and put ourselves in a really good position moving into next week,” said Winfield-Hill.
“It was good.
“It was a pretty complete performance, really.
“Not just me, but everyone that came in played well. Erin played really nicely, Mads too and Ami (Campbell, 36).
“We were then pretty clean in the field. No opportunities went amiss, and our bowlers bowled well.
“I think it’s about measuring ourselves to our standards, and I think we were close to that today.”
Winfield-Hill hit 34 fours and a six in moving to the top of the charts in terms of Yorkshire’s biggest ever individual List A innings, women’s or men’s.
Winfield-Hill bettered Darren Lehmann’s 191 for Yorkshire’s men against Nottinghamshire at Scarborough in 2001.
Salliann Briggs previously held the record for the highest White Rose women’s score, 177 against Cheshire in 2006.
“Rich (Pyrah) told me when I came off, and it’s a pretty awesome thing to have by your name,” said Winfield-Hill.
“I just tried to play each ball as I see it and tried to stay in control and not force the game.
“That was the most pleasing thing, just repeating that and being in total control and being precise and looking to go big.”
Winfield-Hill opened the batting with a new partner in Olivia Thomas, who contributed seven to a first-wicket stand of 41.
“We’re just having a look at different options and seeing where we feel players can have an impact,” explained the skipper. “She’s someone that’s very capable of doing it in terms of her technique and the way she lines up and handles herself.
“She bowled really nicely as well once she got her lengths right with the slope there.”
The other Thomas, Erin, dropped down to number three and hit her season’s best score – her first fifty in the professional era.
“It’s about getting through those wobbles and those periods where you might be under pressure or a ball is particularly challenging or whatever it might be,” enthused Winfield-Hill. “And I think she managed that really well today and got through those periods.
“We all know she’s a great ball-striker, but it’s about piecing it together, isn’t it and riding the ebbs and flows of an innings. She was very impressive in that sense.
“She took an unbelievable catch as well.
“Erin’s a seriously good cricketer.
“We’ve just been waiting to see the best of her, but hopefully today gives her a bit of confidence moving forward and a bit of a template as well of how she wants to play.”
And on Ward, Winfield-Hill added: “She was quite subdued in terms of getting going, but she just gave herself a chance and then just accelerated at the back end.
“She played really nicely and is figuring out her game all the time. She’s somebody who’s been very good for us in that middle order.”
