It hasn’t been the easiest week for the Surrey Stars. First, they lost their best player – the Mega-Star herself, Meg Lanning – who was forced to withdraw from the Kia Super League with a shoulder injury. Then they were defeated in both rubbers of their warm-up double-header at Loughborough, with the Lightning smashing them for over 200 in the second match.

But South African all-rounder Marizanne Kapp is still able to find the bright side:

“Those matches didn’t go as planned but we are still positive. One of the girls made a comment that at least we were bonding, so that’s quite unique – we had a really bad day but we still smiled.”

Stars captain Nat Sciver agrees:

“We had a good day despite the result! It was good fun for a first day out as a team and we can definitely only get better from there!”

Given the traditional rivalry between Middlesex and Surrey, the decision to tie London’s only KSL franchise so tightly to the Surrey brand, has been a controversial one; but Sciver insists this isn’t a problem for the players:

” I think the Middlesex-Surrey rivalry is more with the men – we’ve got some Kent players as well, and based on yesterday, we’ve bonded really well.”

Almost to prove the point, it is two Middlesex players that Sciver points to when asked who we should be looking out for among the more junior members of their squad:

“The young girls that we have are particularly exciting, especially Sophia Dunkley, and also Alex Hartley making her England debut this summer – they’re really exciting prospects.”

The big game for the Stars is their home match versus the Yorkshire Diamonds at The Oval, and Sciver is obviously looking forward to leading the side out at one of the most historic grounds in cricket:

“The two T20 games there against Middlesex have been really good – we’ve had loads of people watching which is really brilliant. We’ve already sold 500 tickets, and hopefully we can sell more.”

Asked about comparisons with the WBBL, Kapp, who reached the final of that competition with the Sydney Sixers, says the same principles apply:

“KSL is shorter [than WBBL] but even for the WBBL you had to be on point from the first game – the same will happen here, we just have to be ready when the first team comes.”

For the Surrey Stars, that team is the Charlotte Edwards’ Southern Vipers, at the Ageas Bowl next Sunday – it should be a cracker!

Loughborough Lightning are very much the wildcard in the Kia Super League pack. Of the five other teams, there are three – Lancashire Thunder, Yorkshire Diamonds and Surrey Stars – that are based around existing counties; and two – Western Storm and Southern Vipers – that are conglomerates of universities and multiple counties.

Lightning, though, chose to go it alone as a university – something that was realistic because, as the home of both the contracted England Women’s Performance squad and the England Women’s Academy, what they did have was an in-place women’s cricket programme that was second-to-none, and an unrivaled set of facilities which New Zealand’s Sophie Devine believes is what gives Loughborough the edge.

“I’ve been here just over a week now,” she says, “[and] what I’ve seen so far has been absolutely incredible – the facilities available literally right on the doorstep – it makes a massive difference.”

Devine admits though that it is a challenge, jetting in from the other side of the world.

“It’s a bit of a shock for me, coming from the middle of winter where it’s not getting above 5 degrees – we had an open wicket training the other day and my feet were really sore from wearing the spikes; but we’re just trying to take it all on board and learn as quick as we can, because the competition’s coming round really quick.”

Of course, facilities are nothing if you haven’t got the players, and Georgia Elwiss tells us they picked their overseas stars very carefully.

“In terms of our international players we’ve got all all-rounders, so they’re all world-class at batting and bowling, which is obviously a massive help – they are all likely to bat in the top 5 and bowl 4 overs each, so for me [as captain] that’s a dream.”

In terms of preparation, Loughborough have had a warm-up double-header versus the Surrey Stars, winning both games, and scoring over 200 in the second match; but Elwiss is characteristically not getting carried away.

“It’s always good to get a run out and see some of the younger girls really perform and stand up. We had small boundaries [but] power hitting has been a thing that we’ve really focused on over the last 18 months, and it’s nice that it’s coming out in the game now.”

As well as work on the field and in the gym, the girls have taken some time-out at Laser Tag, with New South African skipper Dane van Niekerk leading the winning team: “She had all the game plans and she bossed it!” says Elwiss. (“Don’t talk any more about it!” retorts Devine, who we suspect might have been on the losing side!)

Although she is only here for a month, Devine is keen to emphasise that while she is here, she is a Lightning player and not a New Zealand one.

“I don’t care that Georgia plays for England and I play for New Zealand – for me that goes out the window and it’s just about playing cricket. And if we can help each other get better and if we can help the county players get better, then surely that’s going to be better for the women’s game in general.”

Reflecting on the overall state of the women’s game here, Devine thinks we are in good shape going into KSL:

“Women’s cricket over here in England, from what we see from abroad, is massively popular – the crowds you guys get [and] the following of the English girls is huge. So if KSL gets at least a little bit of the following that the England girls get here I think it will be a really successful tournament.”

“It’s only going to be for the better of the women’s game”, she concludes. “It’s a really awesome experience.”

Not surprisingly, all the plaudits have gone to the batsmen in this series against Pakistan, but we’ve also seen some lovely bowling in the T20s from England’s left-armers. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Sophie Ecclestone to Sana Mir (2nd T20)

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Sana Mir is Pakistan’s most experienced player, but seventeen-year-old Ecclestone has her for breakfast here.

Ecclestone delivers the ball from very wide of the crease, so regardless of the spin, which would normally move the ball from leg to off (right to left, as we are looking at it) this ball is heading from off to leg (left to right).

Mir’s plan is just to help it on its way by paddle-sweeping it down to fine leg – we can see she is in position with plenty of time to do this. The advantage of the paddle-sweep here is that Mir doesn’t have to worry too much about the lateral (left/ right) movement of the ball – the length of the bat has her covered.

The down-side of the paddle-sweep is that Mir has to judge the bounce perfectly, and this is where Ecclestone does her up like a kipper. This ball in fact doesn’t spin laterally at all – it is a top-spinner, so when it pitches it comes on with more bounce than Mir is expecting – she is already playing underneath it and the ball ploughs into her middle and leg stumps. Beautiful.

Tash Farrant to Nahida Khan (3rd T20)

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Nahida Khan is an experienced batsman, who made her debut all the way back in 2009, but Farrant has a plan to snag her.

Although this first picture is obviously from behind the bowler’s arm, you can actually see something rather interesting – the ball, which is a slower delivery coming out of the back of Farrant’s hand. England tried a lot of these slower deliveries in the series, and they didn’t always come off, but this one is perfect.

You can see here that Nahida hasn’t picked it – because the trajectory of the ball is “normal” she thinks it is also coming on to the bat at “normal” pace, and is preparing to unleash a big shot.

But she is on to it too quickly – the ball takes a lot longer to reach her than she is expecting and by the time it does, she is horribly tucked-up as she tries to adjust – popping up a fairly straightforward catch back to the bowler. Lovely.

Alex Hartley to Bismah Maroof (3rd T20)

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Bismah Maroof is Pakistan’s T20 captain and was their highest run-scorer on this tour. Meanwhile Hartley has had problems with her line to the left-handers in both the matches she has played.

Maroof is looking to assert herself against the “inexperienced” Hartley so even before the ball is bowled she has started to come aggressively down the pitch – you can see her here dancing forwards just after the moment of delivery, looking to smash it straight back down the ground.

But Hartley has spotted Maroof coming and she changes what she is going to do at the last instant – instead of a spinner, she fires in a quicker ball – forget the spin, just get it down there – and Maroof has to check her forward march!

To be fair to Maroof, she picks it and adjusts to try to push it through the leg side, but her feet aren’t in quite the right place – her bat is too late on the shot and the ball sneaks through the gate between bat and pad and she is bowled. Brilliant.

Pictures © ECB/ Sky – See YouTube Links for copyright details – Reproduced as “Fair Dealing” under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

“I’ve really enjoyed the captaincy,” says Heather Knight, reflecting at the end of her first series at the helm. “The girls have been outstanding and made it very easy for me, and when they’re playing like that it’s a very easy job.”

None have performed better in this series than Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield – a partnership which looks set to run and run:

“Those two have deservedly cemented their spot at the top of the order for a good few tours… Their partnerships have got even better as they’ve gone along and for me that’s been a real plus-point of this tour – how ruthless they’ve been. They never got bored of scoring runs.”

But lower down the order flexibility is the key, with England trying to ensure that the right people face the right overs:

“Nat Sciver is the one person in our squad that can score fifty off 20 balls, so she is the one that we want to send in when we’ve got that platform and that opportunity.”

Hence in the 2nd and 3rd ODIs, and the 1st T20, when England already had big totals in the bank, Sciver was promoted up the order, ahead of Knight; whereas in the 1st ODI, and the 2nd and 3rd T20s, with fewer runs on the board, it was Knight who came in before Sciver.

It is a similarly innovative approach to the tactic of opening the bowling with Nat Sciver, so that Dani Hazell can bowl the last overs of the PowerPlay, as Knight explained after the 2nd T20:

“In T20 you’re sometimes trying to get one step ahead of your opponents, and do something slightly different. We feel Dani Hazell is probably our best PowerPlay bowler [but] the worst overs as a bowler – the ones most likely to go for runs – are the ones at the back end of the PowerPlay [so] we decided to open with Nat.”

Knight is obviously delighted with the series result, but though she is confident, she is not complacent about the future:

“The cricket we’ve played has been really entertaining to watch and everyone’s feeding off the success of each other. But I know we’ll have bigger challenges to come – we’ve got a big winter ahead – and the base from this is going to let us kick on.”

Asked what the hardest part of being captain has been, Knight enjoys a joke at our expense, answering:

“Being dragged to do the media and not being able to enjoy the celebrations straight away!!”

But then she continues, with more of a note of contemplation in her voice:

“There are a little bit more demands of your time, which has taken a bit of getting used to. For me it is about not thinking about cricket constantly – I found myself thinking about cricket probably a bit too much in the last few weeks, so that’s something I can probably learn a little bit better – to have that time to switch off. That will help me have more clarity when I am thinking about cricket.”

Overall though, clearly this has been a series which Knight and her team deserve to remember for all the right reasons. Referencing the media controversy over Charlotte Edwards’s retirement, Knight concludes:

“Going into the summer there was a lot of ‘noise’ going on, but I couldn’t be more proud of how the girls responded – the character they’ve shown. It’s been a really nice place to be.”