England recently announced a one-off 50-over domestic tournament due to start tomorrow – The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. The Women’s tournament is named after former England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe-Flint, who died in 2017.
The tournament will comprise of 8 teams, pooled into two groups, competing in a series of one-day matches to be played between 29th August to 19th September. The top team from each group will advance to the finals to be played on 26th September to determine the overall winner of the tournament.
The one-off tournament is expected to provide much-needed match practice to England domestic players after the suspension of cricket for several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two groups are named ‘North Group’ and ‘South Group’ and include the following teams:
North Group: Central Sparks, Lightning, Northern Diamonds and Thunder
South Group: South East Stars, Southern Vipers, Sunrisers and Western Storm
The Sunrisers, represented by Middlesex, Essex, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, have announced their list of 15 players which would get a chance to play for the side in this tournament.
Following players will represent Sunrisers in the competition:
Amara Carr (Devonshire) – Known in her side as an excellent wicket-keeper batter, she has established herself in the county side in the limited-overs setup. Aged 26, she may have had only 7 scalps as a wicket-keeper last season – 3 catches and 4 stumpings, but she has been excellent with the bat, which has been instrumental in her success with the side. She scored a century against Middlesex in the last season. She will look to build on that for her side in this tournament.
Naomi Dattani (Middlesex) – Hailing from Middlesex, this 26-year-old has been on the fringes of international cricket but has never managed to win her cap in the England side. She has represented the Western Storm side in the last edition of Kia Super League. With a strong performance in this competition, she may just get another look-in in the national setup.
Cordelia Griffith (Middlesex) – Cordelia Griffith is a very promising youngster in the side. She completed a Masters’s degree in Law at Durham University in 2018 and played for Middlesex since then and has impressed every time. She scored an unbeaten 155 against Suffolk in 2018 and followed it up with another century (112) against Somerset and a half-century (65) against Devonshire. Her success earned her a call-up to represent the Yorkshire Diamonds in the Kia Super League last year. She will want to continue this form in this tournament to get noticed in front of national selectors.
Jo Gardner (Warwickshire) – Joanne Gardner is a 23-year-old talented batter who has played for Warwickshire last year. Her innings of 59 against Nottinghamshire showed that she can be a very capable batter. After her showing in the domestic season, she secured a spot in the Loughborough Lightning side for the 2019 Kia Super League. She will hope to get another good performance in this competition so that she can be a regular in the domestic circuit.
Sonali Patel (Middlesex) – Sonali Patel started her domestic career with Middlesex last year playing as a bowler. She was consistently among the wickets and took 9 wickets from 7 games. She will look forward to furthering her career using this competition as a platform.
Kelly Castle (Essex) – Representing the Essex side, this 22-year-old has played as a seamer and has consistently picked up wickets. In the last season, she picked up 10 wickets from 7 games including 2 three-for. She also scored a handy 43 against Durham, which also shows her value as a batter. She will be an important player for her side in this tournament.
Hayley Brown (Northamptonshire) – Hayley Brown is a key player for the Northamptonshire county in domestic 50-over cricket. An excellent batter, she has scored a century against Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire side which propelled her side to 300 in the 50 overs. She also scored a half-century against Norfolk last year to further her cause in her career. These performances have helped her earn a call-up for this side in this tournament.
Alice Macleod (Berkshire) – Alice Macleod is a talented all-rounder playing for Berkshire. Aged 26, she got a few games with the Western Storm side in the 2018 edition of the Kia Super League. However, she came into the limelight in the 2019 domestic season with a strong performance for Berkshire as an all-rounder. She scored 95 against Worcestershire before scoring another unbeaten half-century against Durham. She backed up her batting with her bowling and claimed 12 wickets from 7 games with three-fors on 2 occasions. She will be one of the players to watch out for in this competition.
Katie Wolfe (Middlesex) – With the ball, 19-year-old seamer Katie Wolfe is one to watch – she’s quick, accurate and can bamboozle the best of them: last year she made waves with a hat-trick against Somerset in the Women’s County Championship, finishing as Middlesex’s leading wicket-taker as they charged to the top of Division Two. She was the winner of the club’s Women’s Youth Player of the Year for 2019.
Katie Midwood (Leicestershire) – Playing as an all-rounder for her side, Katie Midwood has got starts while batting but has not managed to convert it into a big score. She will hope to get a few games in this tournament to try doing just that to help her side with some valuable contributions while also build her career.
Mia Rogers (Berkshire) – Eighteen-year-old Mia Rogers won’t be first choice keeper but she might just carve out a space for herself in the middle order, after top-scoring for the Sunrisers with an unbeaten 24 in their recent warm-up against Lightning.
Scarlett Hughes (Essex), Emily Thorpe (Middlesex), Gaya Gole (Middlesex) and Grace Scrivens (Kent) make up the rest of the squad.
What is even more exciting is that the side will be coached by none other than Trevor Griffin, who won the Kia Super League twice at the helm of Western Storm and is one of the most respected coaches currently working in the women’s game. His coaching experience can help turn this seemingly inexperienced side into a competitive side in the tournament.
Sunrisers begin their campaign against Southern Vipers on August 29th at Chelmsford.