Academy seamer Amelia Love starred with a fantastic debut four-for, but it wasn’t enough to give Yorkshire’s women an opening day victory as Worcestershire claimed the honours at Headingley.
The opening Metro Bank One-Day Cup 2 fixture of the season saw the Pears, invited to bat, post 228 all out before defending it comfortably to win by 114 runs.
Yorkshire were bowled out for 114 inside 24 overs, with Sterre Kalis posting 51 off 55 balls before she heads to Tier 1 side Warwickshire on loan next week.
Kalis played nicely, but Love deserves the bulk of the credit given this was the 16-year-old’s debut.
As the White Rose bowled Worcestershire out with 11 balls of their innings remaining, Love claimed 4-39 from 10 overs, and she was backed up by Beth Langston’s 3-28 from 9.1 overs.
Off-spinner Claudie Cooper also struck twice after captain Lauren Winfield-Hill had elected to bowl first.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Claudie Cooper celebrates an early wicket with wicketkeeper Lauren Winfield-Hill and Rebecca Duckworth.
For Worcestershire, left-arm spinner Flora Bertwistle impressed with 4-32 from 6.1 overs, including the winning wicket of Netherlands international Kalis stumped.
Fellow slow left-armer Phoebe Brett took the new ball and set the tone. She finished with three wickets. Earlier, Ruby Davis and Bryony Gillgrass contributed 44 and 48 respectively through the middle of the visiting innings.
The visitors got off to a quiet start. Their first run off the bat didn’t come until the end of the third over. But openers Gwen Davies (21) and Clare Boycott (38) accelerated and shared 53 in 12 overs.
Yorkshire bowled 11 wides early on but tightened up impressively.
Cooper, a new signing from Surrey, claimed the first two wickets to fall, removing Davies lbw as she pushed forwards and then, shortly afterwards, visiting captain Chloe Hill caught at slip as she shimmied down the pitch yet looped a catch up to Ami Campbell.
Cooper finished with encouraging figures of 2-45 from her 10 overs, and it was the spin of Maddie Ward which accounted for Worcestershire’s third wicket – Boycott lbw playing around her front pad.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Amelia Love bowls at Headingley today.
That left the visitors at 82-3 in the 19th over, and it looked like Yorkshire would assert their authority from there. Not so.
They did manage to take a hold of the innings, but not before Davis and Gillgrass gave them a scare by sharing 78 inside 13 overs.
Both played nicely and took the attack to Yorkshire.
Davis was strong off front foot and back, while Gillgrass was more inventive. She was strong off her legs and whipped Ward’s spin for six over deep square-leg.
But both fell short of half-centuries on a true pitch with good pace, and Bolton Percy CC product Love got them both.
The first one came with a slice of fortune as Davis miscued a full toss out to deep mid-wicket, leaving Worcestershire at 160-4 in the 31st over, before Poppy Davies was trapped lbw by the same bowler two overs later.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Sterre Kalis en-route to a consolatory fifty.
And when Love removed Gillgrass, well caught by a tumbling Sterre Kalis just in front of point, the New Road side were 200-6 after 41 overs.
Wickets then fell regularly as the visitors struggled to regain the momentum they claimed through the middle.
The Love-Kalis combination struck again to oust Emily Churms before Brett skied Langston to cover, where Ria Fackrell held on. And Langston wrapped up the innings by bowling Jess Beach and Bertwistle.
Sophie Beech did finish with a useful 36 not out.
At halfway, Yorkshire looked as if they had the edge, but that theory was threatened quickly as Winfield-Hill sliced the new-ball seam of Churms to point, falling for eight.
And when Brett bowled the other opener Erin Thomas and then had Rebecca Duckworth caught at slip, for four apiece, Yorkshire were 22-3 in the sixth over and in bother.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Beth Langston claimed three wickets today.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t get any easier as wickets fell regularly.
Campbell, the only other batter to reach double figures with 13, fell next when she holed out to long-on off Jess Beach’s seam – 63-4 in the 13th over.
And from there, it was an uphill task, despite Kalis’s presence.
Bertwistle claimed four of the last six wickets to fall, ousting Ward, Langston, Fackrell and then Kalis, who had reached her fifty off 55 balls with an eye-catching six over cover off Bertwistle.
Yorkshire will look to bounce back against Sussex at Hove next Saturday.
