Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com. Rachel Slater is all smiles alongside Erin Thomas. Slater is back in action after missing the first half of the summer through injury.
No injury is ever a good injury, but I would have to say that – as a left-arm seam bowler – a fractured right wrist is the best one I’ve ever had in my career!
The good thing was that I’ve had pretty much two months of full bowling since being scanned upon my return from World Cup qualifying duty with Scotland in Pakistan in late April. The only things I couldn’t do were batting and fielding.
That’s not to say it hasn’t been frustrating to have missed the first half of the summer. It definitely has. And I’m very happy to be back on the field again now.
To win against Derbyshire on Saturday afternoon – our third in succession at the start of the Vitality Blast – was a good performance from the girls.
But I still think there’s a lot we could do better, mainly in the powerplay in each innings.
There’s probably an extra 20 percent to give in each phase of the game.
Maybe some would say that’s a harsh review having won by 59 runs in defence of 163-4, but that’s what we have to be as we prepare for Tier 1 cricket next summer.
We were 41-0 after the powerplay and have the capabilities to be 50 or 60-0 with plenty of power to come. But Ami Campbell and Ria Fackrell were excellent at the end and propelled us to a good total.
With the ball, we bowled enough good balls to take wickets, but we didn’t get it completely on the money in that first four or five overs. I was very much a part of that. We just missed length a few too many times, and it took us a while to adjust.
As I said, it may sound harsh, but it’s very easy when you’re winning games comfortably to let little things slip under the radar.
And we know that we’ll have to be on the money when we go into Tier 1 next year and also later this year if we hopefully get through to play Finals Day in the T20 and then the semi-finals and final in the 50-over stuff.
We’re definitely confident of, firstly, getting to Finals Day in the Blast having built up some good momentum with three straight wins, and then winning it.
We’re not going to be happy if we don’t win it.
It’s definitely building up to be a really exciting end to the season for us, that’s for sure. There’s a lot to play for, and it’s where you want to be at this stage of the summer.
Finally, I’ve spoken about looking ahead to Tier 1 nest summer, but there’s also the T20 World Cup being played in England.
Headingley will host five matches across four days, with England, Australia, India and the West Indies all playing qualifiers who are still to be determined.
That could be Scotland. If we can qualify and get the opportunity to play one of our matches at Headingley, that would be unbelievable for me personally.
It would be such a proud moment – a dream come true.
