Guest reporter Ben Gardner was at Blackpool last Friday to see Southern Vipers defeat Lancashire Thunder.

It was a shame really. This pitch, a used wicket, was slow and low, the kind that encourages neither extravagant strokeplay nor fast bowling. It took spin, allowing Hayley Matthews in particular to showcase her skills. But for crowds wanting to see a run-filled Twenty20, and for organisers wanting to showcase the women’s game, it was a disappointment. It was impressive that even 250 runs were scored in the match.

Still, for the convert, there is something in every pitch to be enjoyed, and it is part of the joy of the game that the surface can have such an impact. To see how players handle such a situation might be a lesser thrill, but a thrill nonetheless. And, for a tournament which aims to develop the younger generation of England stars, the manner in which three of the more experienced Southern Vipers players dealt with the challenge should provide a valuable template.

It was not that Sara McGlashan, Lydia Greenway, and Arran Brindle had greater ability to deal with what Lancashire Thunder were throwing at them; the former in particular struggled at first, and was tied down by the spin of Sophie Ecclestone and the impressive Hayley Matthews. At one point she was just 7 off 17. But she stuck at the task, refusing to give her wicket away, and eventually found a method to make runs. She would finish with 54 off 50 balls: the highest score of the tournament up to that point, as well as the longest innings.

This was a lesson in nous rather than technique, and how these three players adjusted and then met expectations was impressive. With a combined age of 98 years, they will surely have faced such challenges before, and it needed all their know-how to find a solution. McGlashan afterwards said that they “got to about 6-8 overs left and realised around 120/130 would probably be alright. So then it was a matter of just trying to be disciplined, not hit out too much, just work on 5s and 6s through singles.” Coming up with the plan is noteworthy enough, but sticking to it, trusting your assessment of the pitch and not going after balls that are not there to be hit, is worthy of special praise.

Another point of McGlashan’s innings that is worth highlighting was her ability to find a release shot when required. The most eye-catching was the elegant six over long on, off Kate Cross, but equally impressive was the manner in which she and Arran Brindle took Ecclestone’s last two overs for 22; her first two had gone for just 10. This was calculated, intelligent batting of the highest order. A lesser team would have surely folded for nearer to 100.

In the Super League so far, many of the most eye-catching performances have come from some of the youngest players. The likes of Georgia Adams, Katie George, and Bryony Smith have proved that this tournament can reveal players of quality, perhaps even future internationals. But on this occasion it was experience that dragged Vipers to what ended up being a winning total, and gave a prime example to all those watching of how to bat in difficult conditions.

When the initial Super League squads were announced, Berkshire left-arm spinner Linsey Smith was not even included in the list: her chance to play in the competition came only when Charlotte Edwards and Fi Morris collided horribly in the field in the Vipers’ first game last week and she was called in as cover.

Speaking exclusively to CRICKETher after the game, she admitted that even the chance to take to the field with the Vipers has been an unexpected bonus: “I’d been doing some training with the team but to get out there on a big stage like this is great. Just to be part of the team and to have an opportunity to play in the games has been amazing for me.”

But while Smith’s KSL career might have begun as a lucky break, it has not continued that way: it was only down to her own performance with the ball in the Vipers’ previous game, against Lancashire Thunder – she took 1-15 in her 4 overs – that she was retained in the starting XI for today’s match. She was clearly excited about having now claimed her spot in her own right: “I feel amazing. It’s a massive honour to be part of the Vipers with such a huge variety of players at such different levels, and some world-class players…we’ve got a lot of positive vibes in the team.”

On her bowling today – she finished with 4-10, currently the best figures in the competition – she acknowledged that things had gone to plan: “It was a pitch that suited my bowling quite a bit – quite a slow pitch. I was just trying to stick it in the wicket a little bit, making it hard for the batters by taking the pace off the ball, which went well.”

Linsey Smith celebrates taking the wicket of Alex Blackwell. Photo credit: Ruth Conchie.

Lastly, reflecting on the impact that KSL has had on her as a player, Smith was fulsome with her praise: “It just helps me get better and better really. I’m quite new to spin, still learning every game I play. So to have all these different experiences around me, both in games and out of games as well, is a huge opportunity for me to get better.”

Contrary to what seems to be becoming popular opinion, we’re not convinced there’s anything wrong with a low-scoring pitch in women’s T20 cricket – they can generate just as exciting a game as the high-scoring thriller we saw yesterday at Bristol. If this wasn’t that – and no one could really call today a “thriller” – it wasn’t the pitch’s fault; but the fact that Diamonds proved what we all suspected pre-tournament – they’ve got a very long tail.

It doesn’t help that Diamonds’ two overseas batsmen – Alex Blackwell and Beth Mooney – have almost totally failed with the bat, with scores of 3, 23 and 6, and 0, 9 and 17 respectively. Given that Ellyse Perry has also been having problems over at Lightning – she looked completely un-Perry-like when we saw her last Wednesday – is there something wider going on, in terms of Australian players who have flown over to England in the middle of their off-season being unable to recalibrate themselves quickly enough?

Meanwhile Suzie Bates – who’s been in good form with bat and ball – has been over here adjusting to English conditions with Kent for the last couple of months. This competition is very short, and having overseas players who’ve already been playing county cricket seems to have been a bigger advantage than we’d perhaps anticipated.

Alongside Bates, it was Arran Brindle who dug the Vipers out of the not-insubstantial hole they had thrown themselves into at 19-4 in the 7th over, steadying the ship from the instant she arrived at the crease – exactly the role she played so successfully for England in the last few years of her career. It’s patently obvious that she’s still a class above – and exactly what England have been missing since her retirement in February 2014. Sadly, we probably won’t be seeing her in an international shirt again – she gave a pretty unequivocal “no” when I asked her about the possibility of a comeback after close of play – but that’s one reason why it’s so exciting to see her back out there in this competition, playing against the world’s best.

But there were two real stars of today – and Linsey Smith deserves all the plaudits that we hope are coming her way. A week ago when we saw her at Loughborough she was running a how-fast-can-you-bowl sideshow – now she’s running the entire show, with the best bowling figures (4-10) in the competition to date. When she came into the attack at 32-2, the game was still just about in Yorkshire’s grasp; it was Smith who took it away from them with some highly intelligent bowling: a wicket-maiden first-up, followed by removing the dangerous Blackwell in her third over with a brilliant head-high reflex catch that otherwise would have gone crashing to the boundary. Perhaps she might even get her own Vipers shirt now!

Lastly, a mention to Carla Rudd – 2 stumpings today, and impeccable work with the gloves. It obviously helps that she’s used to keeping to bowlers like Smith and Fi Morris at Berkshire, but she’s barely put a foot wrong in this competition, and if you’re looking at the reasons why the Vipers have become the first team to qualify for Finals Day, she’s got to be a factor.

The ECB has today announced that six regional development centres – each aligned to one of the current KSL franchises – are set to launch this autumn, to provide high-quality coaching for up to 120 talented girls under the age of 16.

The new regional development centres replace the existing England Women’s Development Programme (EWDP) for Under-15s, which was a national programme that catered for only 20 girls. Each new regional centre will act as a feeder of the most talented players into the senior KSL side, with the aim that girls selected for the centres will aspire to play not just for their county but for their local KSL team.

The launch has been made possible by the awarding of Sport England funding under their “Reward and Incentive Programme”, which rewards national governing bodies who have performed exceptionally well in the 2013-17 cycle with increased investment.

The Under-19 EWDP, meanwhile, will continue to exist in its current form.

Reflecting on today’s tight game against Western Storm, which ended with a 5-wicket victory by the Storm with just 2 balls remaining, Surrey Stars captain Nat Sciver admitted that her team’s fielding had let them down.

“It’s a tough one,” she said, “because we did things so well for a long time in the game and then just at the end, when we needed a bit of composure, we put down a couple of catches and unfortunately we couldn’t help our bowlers over the line.”

One mistake in particular was clearly playing on her mind: “Dropping Taylor when she was on not very many runs has proved very costly.”

She stressed that her message to her team in the post-game debrief was to “keep your heads up”, but also that they would be working on improving their performance in the field before their next match at Guildford on Tuesday: “I’ll have a chat with the team and let them know that a bit of composure and calm can help…We need calmer heads and hopefully that’s something I can help them with.”

For Sciver, the challenge with Super League has partly been captaining a young and inexperienced side: “This has been a really good standard of tournament and it really shows what the step up is, and for some of the county girls it is a little bit different. It is definitely a learning curve.”

The Stars have now lost both their away games, while winning their home game at the Oval, but Sciver feels this is a coincidence: “I don’t think it matters that much. For most of the game today we were on top.”

On her own innings, meanwhile – she became the tournament’s top-scorer today, ending on 90* – she said: “That is as fluent as I have felt. They bowled quite a few balls short at me, which I don’t think was the plan, because I know Heather [Knight] knows I like it short. I just found they kept bowling in the area that I wanted!”

While Stars now face an uphill struggle to qualify for Finals Day, probably needing to win both their next games in order to do so, Sciver said that they would “throw everything into it…it’s all or nothing now.”

This match was a case-study in not giving up. The Storm looked dead and buried at least twice.

First, at the end of the 4th over, with the Storm at 17-3, and with Rachel Priest, Heather Knight and Fran Wilson all back in the dugout, you’d have put your money on the Stars 100% – the Storm were dead and buried.

Then, with the Storm having somehow clawed things back to parity by the end of the 13th over, thanks to some powerful hitting in a 75 run partnership between Lizelle Lee and Stafanie Taylor, the Storm lost Lee at the start of the 14th, and proceeded to score just 3 runs for the loss for the loss of 2 wickets in following 2 overs, leaving them staring at a Required Rate of over 14. Having come back to life… presumably as zombies… the Storm were dead and buried once more – Surrey just couldn’t lose it all over again… could they?

That they did was down to a number of things – Stafanie Taylor keeping her cool, finding the boundary 7 times in the last 3 overs; Sophie Luff (whose game would really be much better suited to Tests… which she’ll probably never get to play) keeping her cool in supporting Taylor and giving up the strike; and some frankly pretty woeful fielding from the Stars – the latter probably actually the most important factor overall – if they had fielded better, the Stars would have won this game.

Afterwards, Stafanie Taylor reflected upon the impact her dropping Nat Sciver had on her mindset going into bat:

“The type of player that I am, it was horrible for me actually to be in the field and not take those catches and not get it right. So when I came off I sat in the dressing room and I just had a moment to myself, thinking: ‘I have to contribute to this team, I really have to – it doesn’t matter about what happened, but I have to give it my all and just go out there and do my best’.”

Throughout the Kia Super League, we’ll be featuring short interviews with players, coaches & other interesting people we find around and about at the grounds. Yesterday’s top-scorer in Surrey Stars’ win against Yorkshire Diamonds may have been Tammy Beaumont, but it was fellow opener 18-year-old Bryony Smith who helped her set the platform. She answered our quick-fire questions after the match…

If not Surrey Stars, who would you like to win?

I would go for Lancashire Thunder. I’ve got some good friends playing there, and beating Loughborough yesterday [Wednesday] was really good for them.

Who would you like to see playing in KSL that isn’t?

I think Ebony Rainford-Brent should be getting her kit on! She’s been up in the changing rooms picking everyone’s bats up, so I think just give her a bat and she’ll be out there!

Favourite KSL player?

I’m going to go for my teammate Rene Farrell. The Loud Australian as we call her! She’s a really good buzz around the team and a great team player.

Justin Bieber or One Direction?

One Direction.

Which sportswoman/women do you admire outside cricket?

I play a lot of squash and there’s a woman called Nicol David, she’s won pretty much every single title in the world. She’s been number 1 for about 7 years. Just the way that she’s persevered through everything.

Favourite cricket ground?

The Oval.

Favourite thing on the menu in Nandos?

Chicken burger and chips – medium spice!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully with an England shirt on, playing here in a World Cup final!

Where do you see women’s cricket in 10 years?

Attracting an even bigger, packed crowd at the Oval – a full house!

Yorkshire Diamonds Jenny Gunn and Hollie Armitage have become the first KSL players to be penalised under the ECB’s Discipline Code.

They were reprimanded for “Level One” breaches of the code – showing dissent at an umpire’s decision – during the Yorkshire Diamonds’ Kia Super League match against Loughborough Lightning.

The reprimands will remain on their records for two years, with the accumulation of nine or more penalties in any two year period resulting in an automatic suspension.

Three days before the start of the Kia Super League, there is news of a shake-up for Surrey Stars, who have signed New Zealander Lea Tahuhu and Middlesex’s Naomi Dattani.

Tahuhu replaces Meg Lanning, who ruled herself out of the competition last week due to a shoulder injury.

All-rounder Dattani, meanwhile – fresh from taking 3-35 in Middlesex’s successful match against Warwickshire on Sunday – has been brought into the squad in place of wicketkeeper Kirstie White, who suffered an ankle injury in Surrey’s warm-up game against Loughborough Lightning last week. It means that England’s Tammy Beaumont will be back behind the stumps for the Stars.

The Stars’ choice of Tahuhu, a right-arm seamer with 49 international wickets to her name, in place of Lanning, suggests that they see strengthening their bowling line-up ahead of the tournament as crucial, after conceding over 200 runs against Loughborough in their warm-up last week.

On a sunny day at Beckenham, Kent held their nerve to win the T20 Cup in a contest that went right down to the final over of the third game.

As the day began, only Warwickshire had their destiny in their own hands: a win in either of their games would have handed them the Cup after strong performances earlier in the competition. Both Kent and Middlesex, meanwhile, were reliant both on winning their games and on other results going their way.

The first game of the day was thus crucial to both team’s hopes; and it was Kent who kept their title dream alive – while quashing Middlesex’s – with a comfortable 7-wicket victory. Middlesex, having been put in, started slowly and were soon undone by a bit of Suzie Bates magic, as she seized a wicket off her first ball – Tash Miles, caught by Tash Farrant at backward point – and followed it up with the wicket of Fran Wilson four balls later, lbw attempting a sweep shot. It put Middlesex on the back foot and they found it hard to recover, posting just 111, a total which Kent chased down with 9 balls to spare.

Middlesex could thus hope for nothing more than the consolation prize of victory against Warwickshire, but this nonetheless seemed to be enough to spur them on. Warwickshire had posted a mammoth 137-8 in their 20 overs, thanks to the aggressive intent of openers Amy Jones (29 off 20 balls) and Georgia Hennessy (36 off 37).

It looked an enormous ask, but Middlesex proved themselves equal to the task as England Present came together with England Past in the form of Fran Wilson and Beth Morgan. Coming together on 40-2, the two shared a 98-run partnership and fortune favoured the brave as they rode their luck in the form of dropped catches and missed run-outs by a nervous-looking Warwickshire side. An improvised ramp shot for four over Wilson’s head in the final over helped seal the deal for her team, as they won by 8 wickets.

Fran Wilson Brings Out the Reverse Ramp © Sam Gibbs

Thus it all came down to the third and final game of the day between Kent and Warwickshire. Put in by Kent, Warwickshire were under enormous pressure after their poor showing against Middlesex, but openers Jones (40) and Hennessy (37) laid a solid foundation, taking their side to 55-0 at the halfway point. Once they were dismissed, in the 13th and 14th overs respectively, it was left to Marie Kelly and Jenny Gunn to frantically push for singles in the last 5 overs as the pair dragged Warwickshire to a competitive 126-4.

It might have proved enough, but the old adage that catches win matches came home to roost and, while Warwickshire’s fielding was much improved from their first game of the day, dropping Bates twice in the course of the first four overs was a costly error. Bates went on to amass 43 before finally being caught by Becky Grundy at backward point in the 12th over.

A glimmer of hope shone upon Warwickshire as Charlotte Edwards and Tammy Beaumont both followed Bates back to the dug-out, with Kent still requiring 39 off the last 5 overs, a figure that became 30 off the last 3 and 7 off the very last over of the day – still more than a run a ball. But a Greenway straight drive for four ensured that Kent brought home the silverware, winning by 7 wickets with two balls to spare.

Alice Davidson-Richards Played A Couple of Crucial Knocks © Sam Gibbs

While Kent’s England players are often shouted about, today the calm composure of Alice Davidson-Richards (30* and 19*) deserves special mention: coming to the crease in difficult circumstances both times, she was ultimately crucial to the two wins that her team needed to secure the Cup. The Bears, meanwhile, were left cruelly ruing what might have been.

Kent Celebrate the T20 Cup © Sam Gibbs

Afterwards Suzie Bates, who ended the T20 season as Div 1’s highest run scorer, reflected to CRICKETher:

“We didn’t have a great start [to the T20 season] at Wokingham – we lost two close matches and we knew we had to win everything from there, [so] we said at the start of today that everything else was out of our control, and we just had to play good cricket.”

“Warwickshire played 18 overs of pretty outstanding cricket and probably deserved a win, but it just shows in Twenty20 cricket two overs can change the game pretty quickly, and it just shows the experience of Lydia Greenway coming through in that final part of the game.”