Yorkshire opened their Vitality Women’s County T20 campaign with a pair of Bank Holiday Monday victories over North East Warriors and Cumbria.
Performances were shared around across the two games at Whitburn Cricket Club, just outside Sunderland.
Bess Heath backed up a pair of forties in Saturday’s Northern Diamonds T20 friendlies against Central Sparks with 39 in the first game, a 41-run win over the Warriors. Rachel Slater and Grace Hall both struck twice with the ball in a comfortable defence of 142-4, with the hosts finishing on 101-9.
The Warriors side included Diamonds’ batter Sterre Kalis, who opened for her side like Heath had done. But she only scored two and was one of left-arm seamer Slater’s victims.
In the second game, Yorkshire captain Beth Langston top-scored with 27 in 106-7, just bettering Phoebe Turner’s 26. The pair shared 54 for the third wicket to advance the innings from 19-2.
Langston added a wicket in defence, while Turner took a couple of catches. Yorkshire’s standout bowler was another Slater, Bethany, who claimed a superb 2-12 from her four overs as Cumbria finished on 99-6, ensuring a seven-run success for Langston and co.
Cumbria failed to get 16 runs off the last over from Langston, finishing on 99-6 and handing Yorkshire a seven-run win.
Katie Levick’s pursuit of becoming the first bowler to take 200 wickets in county cricket yielded one in each game. The Sheffield-born leg-spinner started the campaign with a career total of 186.
Yorkshire are back in action on Sunday with another double header against Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire at Moorlands Cricket Club in Huddersfield.
