Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Tomorrow, Yorkshire captain Lauren Winfield-Hill faces the team she spent time on loan with last season for the Vitality Blast.
Yorkshire have shown plenty in the first five games of the summer to be encouraged by as they get started with life in Tier 1. But there is a key area for improvement, insists head coach Rich Pyrah.
The White Rose have won two so far in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, adding a tie to two defeats. That tie came against Durham at Scarborough on Wednesday when they were bowled out for 290 in pursuit of 291.
Encouragement? Yes, absolutely. Frustration that their start could have been even better? Yes, absolutely.
“Like we saw against Durham, crucial catches and crucial run outs,” said Pyrah ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Essex at Headingley (10.30am).
“We need to manage these little areas of the game better.
“The players need to, under pressure, just manage their emotions a little bit better.
“That’s emotional control, which we’re lacking at the minute, just from not playing at this level too much and having young players in there.”
Head coach Pyrah said in the aftermath of the tie against Durham that he tries not to get too caught up in the results side of things.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rich Pyrah wants to see the little mistakes cut out of Yorkshire’s game.
“All I want this year is to see us improve and learn,” he continued.
“If we can start not having as many mistakes like that on Wednesday, then we’re going to be a good team.
“The girls are loving it. It’s been a tough start. After Saturday, we will have played six games in three weeks and we’re hanging on from a squad point of view a bit.”
With Jess Jonassen missing this game to attend her best friend’s wedding in Australia – a pre-planned arrangement – and Ami Campbell’s broken finger leaving her as a doubt, that is where Pyrah’s comment about the squad being stretched comes from.
Though the performances of someone like an Ines Blackwell, the 16-year-old Academy all-rounder, indicates that there is definite talent below the senior ranks to step up if and when required.
Blackwell has opened the batting in recent weeks, she batted in the middle order against Durham and took 4-61 in that game with her medium-paced in-swingers.
“The composure she has for a young cricketer is outstanding,” said Pyrah. “It’s something that you rarely see.
“Her bowling, her batting, her fielding, she’s going to be a good cricketer. She’s consistently performing in Tier 1, and she will improve.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ines Blackwell was superb with the ball against Durham on Wednesday and has shown she is more than capable with the bat as well.
“The shape on the ball she gets, it’s going to end up being at decent pace in a couple of years. That shape, batters don’t like.
“And with the bat, she’s just pulled Lauren Filer, one of the quickest bowlers in the world, for six over deep backward square-leg, which shows the talent that she has.”
A more experienced head who has started the season nicely is Sterre Kalis.
While overseas all-rounder Jonassen has quite rightly taken the majority of the headlines following her contribution of 309 runs and 12 wickets, Kalis is also in the top five leading run-scorers in the competition to date.
Jonassen is the One-Day Cup’s leading wicket-taker and third most prolific batter, and Kalis is close behind with 227, including scores of 38, 61, 45 and 79.
“The pleasing thing is that Sterre’s always been a good player,” added Pyrah. “But can she do it consistently? And the way she’s started, she’s getting into that position.
“The next challenge for her is to turn that 75 into 100 not out and go and win us the game.”
While Yorkshire are fifth on 12 points, Essex are bottom having played five, lost four and won one.
Picture by Andrew Redington/Getty Images, Stephen Parry is the new Essex head coach. He was assistant at Lancashire last season when they won this competition.
Captained by batting all-rounder Grace Scrivens, they are coached by former Lancashire and England men’s spinner Stephen Parry, who was appointed at Chelmsford over the winter.
Essex’s only win so far came on Wednesday against Somerset at Taunton Vale, by five wickets chasing 269. All-rounder Jodi Grewcock took one wicket with leg-spinner added to a middle-order 120 not out in the chase.
She has just received her maiden senior England call-up for the forthcoming ODI series against New Zealand, starting on May 10.
Last May, Yorkshire – then a Tier 2 county – beat Essex in the third round of the Vitality County T20 Cup at Headingley.
A repeat this weekend would do very nicely and would further increase confidence that the White Rose can challenge for a top-four finish come the end of the summer.
