Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Maddie Ward on the drive at Clifton Park today. She impressed with bat and ball.
Vice captain Maddie Ward contributed with ball and then bat to help Yorkshire win a fifth successive match across all competitions, this one by six wickets against Leicestershire Foxes in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup 2 at York’s Clifton Park.
Ward claimed 2-46 from 10 overs of spin as the Foxes posted 205-8 before she anchored a chase completed inside 34 overs with a composed 41 off 74 balls.
She shared in a 68-run stand with third-wicket partner, her captain Lauren Winfield-Hill, and 55 for the fourth wicket with brutal Ami Campbell, the latter who top-scored with 60 not out in only 35 balls.
Experienced pair Winfield-Hill and Campbell have been Yorkshire’s star performers with the bat this season in winning three from four matches in this competition and two in the Vitality County T20 Cup. Winfield-Hill contributed 44 and Campbell hit five fours and four sixes.
Academy debutant Ellie Nightingale also contributed 17 not out, including the winning runs in the 34th over as five points were secured.
But 20-year-old Ward was the key contributor in Yorkshire’s final 50-over match until August 2 as the summer schedule is taken over by T20 cricket for the next two-and-a-half months.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Ellie Nightingale scored runs and played her part in a run out at York today.
After the Foxes, who have lost three and won one, elected to bat, Francesca Sweet’s middle order 52 off 51 balls was supported by a pair of 39s from Lucy Weston and unbeaten Ellie Phillips at either end of the innings.
Sweet was excellent, including hitting her first ball over long-on for six off the off-spin of Ward, who matched seamer Grace Hall’s two-wicket return.
Olivia Thomas also struck once alongside fellow spinner Claudie Cooper and debutant new-ball seamer Laura Marshall, who made the initial breakthrough.
Yorkshire made an excellent start with the ball, even though there wasn’t a clatter of wickets early on.
Beth Langston set the tone beautifully with the new ball, indicated by her overall figures of 0-12 from seven overs. On another day, she would have been celebrating a three or four-wicket haul.
Others benefited from her good work, with Marshall – a former Lancashire player on debut over on the correct side of the Pennines given Rachel Slater’s wrist injury – striking when she bowled wicketkeeper-opener Sophie Bennett, leaving the score at 22-1 after six overs.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Laura Marshall celebrates the early wicket of Sophie Bennett.
Leicestershire lost wickets at regular intervals from there.
Foxes captain and opener Becki Brooker was bowled by Cooper’s off-spin before Hayley Brown was trapped lbw by the off-spin of Ward, who started her good day.
At that stage, Leicestershire were 65-3 in the 22nd over, bringing Sweet to the crease and paving the way for her eye-catching start.
The Sussex age-group product was the key reason why the Foxes gave themselves a target to work with. She struck the ball nicely but ran well between the wickets too.
However, wickets continued to fall around her. Weston miscued Ward to wide mid-off and Aimee Colquhoun was caught behind by Winfield-Hill stood up to the stumps off Hall as the score fell to 96-5 in the 29th over.
From there, Yorkshire will have been frustrated at allowing their visitors to more than double their total during an overcast and chilly start to the day in the Minster City.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Maddie Ward (left) and Ami Campbell (right) were key contributors with the bat.
Sweet shared 52 for the sixth wicket with Phillips before heaving a full toss from Olivia Thomas to mid-wicket, where Langston took a low catch – 148-6 in the 41st over.
Phillips then shared 49 with Laura Crofts, who later skewed Hall to cover with her county on the verge of 200. Holly Whitfield was then run out off the last ball of the innings by a direct hit at the striker’s end from cover by Nightingale.
Yorkshire flew out of the blocks in reply, with Erin Thomas leading the charge.
Unfortunately, however, it was only brief entertainment from the England Under 19, who hoisted left-arm new-ball seamer Emma Thatcher over long-on for six in a 21-ball 23.
Thomas fell when she picked out deep mid-wicket off a short ball from Phillips, who then had Rebecca Duckworth caught behind off a top-edge two balls later, leaving the score at 40-2 in the in the sixth over.
That forced a period of consolidation for the hosts as captain Winfield-Hill and her vice Ward united with some effect.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Erin Thomas helped get Yorkshire’s innings off to a flyer.
The latter was dropped by keeper Bennett early in her innings, but she survived the danger to ensure a five-point win was secured.
She shared 63 for the third wicket with her captain Winfield-Hill, who hit a couple of particularly memorable boundaries over mid-off’s head against seamers Phillips and Crofts.
Winfield-Hill was bowled by one which kept low from the seam of Sweet, leaving Yorkshire at 108-3 in the 21st over.
Uneven bounce was something we saw throughout, with Duckworth maybe undone earlier by one which bounced a touch more than expected as she looked to turn one around the corner.
Thankfully, Ward’s continued presence at the crease was key, as was Campbell’s powerful effort which put the leg-spin of April Herathge under serious pressure.
Campbell peppered the leg-side, hitting a couple of sixes over long-on and mid-wicket.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Grace Hall celebrates one of her two wickets.
It was an obvious frustration that Ward was unable to complete a maiden senior fifty – caught at mid-off against Whitfield’s seam, 163-4 in the 29th over.
But it allowed Nightingale to come in and help dot the i’s and cross the t’s on a commanding victory but not completely one-sided victory.
Campbell reached her fifty off 30 balls and finished the contest in double quick-time from there.
