Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Lauren Winfield-Hill celebrates taking the catch off Claudie Cooper’s bowling to dismiss Lancashire’s Meg Lanning at York last Wednesday.
Captain Lauren Winfield-Hill has looked ahead to Friday’s Roses clash at Emirates Old Trafford and has admitted: “You get a bit giddy about it, actually.”
Winfield-Hill spoke last Friday after Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast win over Somerset at Headingley about how special the crowd and atmosphere was on that occasion.
And there’s no doubt that this will be another of those moments to savour, the women’s game being the first part of a Roses double header with the men’s teams.
The women get going at 3pm before the men at 7pm. Both fixtures are being televised live by Sky Sports.
It is a day which has been marked down on the calendar ever since the fixtures were released back in late November, with Yorkshire coach Rich Pyrah also speaking of the excitement.
Winfield-Hill said: “The taste of the crowd on Friday, then a nice little double-header on Sky against Lancs. You really feel like this is the exciting bit.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Sterre Kalis, Lauren Winfield-Hill and Yorkshire are bidding for their third successive Blast win.
“We’ve got a good couple of wins on the board, and we can go over there and take them on. Everyone should be buzzing.
“I’m so excited. They’re the games that I want to play in, the headline sort of games. It’ll be a really great experience for a lot of girls who haven’t played in those big derby games on TV. All we can do is make sure that we’re not overawed by it and just relish a really cool opportunity.”
The women’s fixture certainly pits two of the competition’s best overseas players – if not the best – against each other in Yorkshire’s Jess Jonassen and Lancashire’s Meg Lanning. They are both Australian greats.
“That’s why I think this competition is awesome,” added Winfield-Hill. “The double-headers, TV games and world-class overseas. We had Ellyse Perry playing for Hampshire last year, didn’t we, Jonassen this year, Lanning.
“The standard’s really high. It’s attracting some of the best players in the world, and that’s what you really ask for.”
Unfortunately, these two sides are the bottom two in the Blast group table and, with two games remaining over the weekend, are out of Finals Day contention.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Australian legend Meg Lanning will play against Yorkshire in front of the TV cameras tomorrow.
Lancashire will be without four players for this fixture because of England Test duty, including their captain and wicketkeeper-batter Ellie Threlkeld.
Both counties have won two games from 10, though Yorkshire are a point better off. Since Lancashire won the first meeting at York last Wednesday, they have lost two on the bounce, whereas Yorkshire have won their last two. They beat Somerset at Headingley last Friday and then Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Sunday.
Head coach Pyrah said: “We’ve spoken about it a couple of times coming up to this Lancs game. The girls flagged it early with it being on Sky. The majority of the girls have never played live on TV before.
“The message is, ‘Go show them how good you are’.
“The talent is there, it’s just a little bit of match awareness and experience that we’re lacking.
“We’ve shown this year that when we play at our best and our senior girls stand up, we can beat anyone. It’s an exciting challenge for us.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rich Pyrah has happy Roses memories.
“We’ll go in there and we’ll play some positive cricket.
“The last two games have been two good performances, so just go and enjoy it now. This is what you play cricket for. There’ll be a big crowd at Old Trafford, live on Sky, against a good team with one of the best batters in the world in Meg Lanning.”
Despite last week’s Blast defeat at York, there are plenty of happy memories for the group as they head across the Pennines, chiefly the April Metro Bank One-Day Cup win over the defending champions at this venue. In that match, Jess Jonassen scored a century and took four wickets.
“We played against Lancashire quite a few times in pre-season and got beat by them every time,” said Pyrah. “But the way we played in the first competitive game was brilliant.
“Jess stood up and performed like we know she can. To go there early in the season and beat them – they are one of the strongest squads and teams in the country – was one of our biggest scalps this year.”
And, of course, Pyrah has his own happy memories. Playing for Yorkshire’s men in 2014, he hit the winning six over cover off Kabir Ali.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Rich Pyrah batting for Yorkshire in the 2014 Vitality Blast.
Earlier this week, Adam Lyth described it as his favourite Roses memory.
Pyrah smiled, adding: “I always loved playing in these games, home and away. It’s as close as you get to playing international cricket. I was never good enough to go and play at a higher standard, but I always enjoyed those occasions. That night was special.
“We watched Aaron Finch smack it all over, but for me to finish the game like that was amazing.
“I still think back to it every time I go over there.”
