On a day in which “Sunshine Capital of England” Eastbourne distinctly failed to live up to its name, Sussex were left celebrating a 42-run win over old rivals Kent, after an entertaining cameo from their number 7 batsman Izzy Noakes allowed them to set a competitive total of 173.

The match – delayed by the kind of mizzly, freezing rain which is more generally found in the Highlands of Scotland – did not start until 2.10pm, with the overs reduced to 30 a side. With the sky overcast and the pitch damp, Kent chose to put Sussex in to bat. While they started well, with a stylish half-century from Georgia Adams helping them reach 99-3 at the halfway stage, a mini-collapse ensued, as Hannah Phelps (4), Izi Collis (14), Ellen Burt (7) and Abbie Freeborn (1) all fell cheaply.

Cue the entrance of Noakes, and an innings which combined scrappy inelegance with middle-of-the-bat power-hitting, including two spectacular sixes in the penultimate over, which sailed over a 10-foot fence into the next door football ground. Perhaps on another day, one with a sharper Kent fielding performance, it might not have come off – but come off it did, and it was met with delight by the watching crowd, which included England coach Mark Robinson.

Noakes’ dismissal in the 30th over, bowled by Charlotte Pape for 38, saw Sussex all out for 173. She had enabled her side to add 40 runs for the 9th and 10th wickets – ultimately the difference between the two sides.

Kent’s innings began with the cheap dismissal of Charlotte Edwards, bowled by Tara Norris for 1, but Tammy Beaumont (49) and Lydia Greenway (33) then shared an 82-run partnership. For Kent, however, with rain clouds hovering ominously overhead, the issue was always keeping up with the required run rate, which they rapidly fell behind. After the dismissal of Beaumont, caught by Sally Clarke off Burt in the 19th over, the pressure told; and a combined effort from the Sussex bowlers saw them bowled out for 131.

Sussex were visibly delighted with the result, in a match which clearly had added spice after last year’s encounter between the two sides, which controversially ended in a tie after Sussex snatched a run off the last ball. Captain Georgia Elwiss, speaking to CRICKETher after the game, said that she was happy about the way her team responded after their 6-wicket loss to Warwickshire on Sunday:

“We had to turn up today and completely write yesterday off, and draw a line under it and learn from it. I’m really proud of the way the girls played today. It was a real team effort to get us over the line.”

“We knew [173] would be a decent score. With the short boundary and the players that they’ve got it was never going to be plain sailing, but we kept it tight and kept the pressure on, and as soon as wickets started to fall that’s when we really got into the game.”

“It’s a massive fixture for us…it’s the best winning’s felt for a while!”

A Fran Wilson half century might have been the dominant entry on the scorecard on a sunny spring day at Eastcote CC, but it was actually a pair of cameos from Alex Hartley which turned an otherwise well-balanced game into a one-sided walk in the park for Middlesex.

Put into bat, Middlesex lost Dunkley (3) early, playing on as she tried to cut Nat Sciver, but Tash Miles and Fran Wilson rebuilt, taking the score to 47 before Miles (14) became the first of Cecily Scutt’s five victims. Wilson looked to push on, dominating partnerships with Anna Nicholls (3) and Beth Morgan (7) to take them to 102-4.

However, the collapse that followed was one of which England would have been proud, as Middlesex lost their next 5 wickets for 11 runs, including a magnificent catch by Sophie Pout to dismiss Wilson for 63, leaving them on the brink at 113-9, with only Alex Hartley to come.

Hartley is a self-confessed “tail-ender” and initially looked quite the part as a couple of streaky edges went through the vacant slip area; but as she grew in confidence, she began to find her shots as her and Naomi Dattani put on 52 for the final wicket – not only changing the course of the game, but grabbing a potentially crucial extra batting bonus point as they passed 150.

In reply, Surrey were soon under the cosh as Middlesex’s overseas, South African-born New Zealander Holly Huddleston, bowling with real pace and good length, removed Kirstie White (3) and Nat Sciver (5) cheaply. Surrey continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, but nevertheless at 70-5, with Bryony Smith well set on 23, a victory still felt like a possibility until Hartley intervened once again.

Changing ends, looking for the ball to turn with the slope, Hartley and skipper Izzy Westbury set an attacking field with a slip and a gully, and were rewarded with two wickets in two balls – both caught by Westbury at gully. Suddenly there was no way back for Surrey, and they subsided to 99 all out, as Middlesex celebrated what could prove to be a very important 17-point win.

Afterwards, Alex Hartley told CRICKETher: “I’ve been working over the winter on my role as a tail-ender, getting off strike and getting the ‘in’ batter back on strike. I felt a bit of panic when I came in – I’ve never been in that situation before, coming in with 22 overs to bat – but I just had to play my own game and today it came off – my highest score!”

Guest writer Richard Clark on the importance of the countdown to the Kia Super League.

So we know the “hosts”, we know where the England players are allocated, we know where the overseas signings have gone, we know the full squads, and we know the fixtures. All this after a well-orchestrated two or three weeks of “drip, drip” style announcements from the ECB and the KSL.

And now? Well, now we must wait. There are, give or take, three months until the start of “KSL1” (if that is what we are to call it). Three long months. Of waiting…

Except wait is the last things the hosts and the ECB should be doing. These three months are, in some ways, more important than the competition itself, because to a certain extent KSL1 will not stand or fall on the quality of the cricket. In a competition that lasts only three weeks (and only two for a couple of the teams) there will be little time for the cricket to make an impact. By the time people make their mind up as to whether it’s worth watching… it will be all but over.

No, KSL1 will succeed at least in part if it “gains traction” in the public consciousness, if it pulls in punters on opening night, if it catches the eye of the media. On that score, so far so good, by and large. The process of gradually unveiling the set-up has been well handled and the “franchises” have generally bought into the need to shout about it. Interest has been piqued, and followings have tentatively been established [see our previous piece on Twitter impact].

Over the next three months, though, nothing much is happening, and it is now – through what you might term the “Phoney War” – that the ECB and the hosts need to earn their corn in terms of turning what I referred to above as “followings” into something more tangible as “fan-bases”.

Nearer the time, there will no doubt be personal appearances by players at events and coaching days close to the host venues, but how about in the meantime?

Marketing departments have got to work overtime in the coming weeks to ensure that they get their message out there. To an extent the mainstream media will not want to know at the moment (What’s the story? Oh, you’ve got a game in three months’ time? Come back and see us then…), so a lot of publicity is going to have to be self-generated.

Social Media will be key here. It will not be enough to put a page on a website and expect that to do the job. Via Twitter and other social media channels the hosts need to get themselves embedded into cricket fans’ minds. Each host has its own dedicated Twitter feed (with the exception of Surrey Stars – a serious mistake in my view). They need to use them daily to worm their way into their followers lives. And remember, it’s not just their followers they are aiming in – never underestimate the power and reach of the re-tweet!

The players too must be tweeting about it constantly – Twitter can be a dangerous world for the sportsman or woman, but the positives here should outweigh the negatives. If this is a “War”, then it needs to be fought with total commitment, and with every weapon available.

And KSL has some weapons – the likes of Edwards, Taylor (both of them!), Lanning, Perry, Matthews… These are potential superstars for my daughter’s generation, and they have to be used as tools in the coming months to make sure KSL1 opens with a bang.

The Kia Super League might still be 3 months away, but off the pitch the battle is already hotting-up online between the marketing teams of the five* Twittering franchises hosts.

As a bit of fun we’ve powered-up the super-computer, run the big numbers, and calculated a sophisticated(!) “Impact Score” for each of the five* official Twitter accounts. (List here!)

It’s early days of course, but already it is looking like Lancashire Thunder might have this one sewn up… unless Loughborough Lightning can pull something out of the bag? Or perhaps it will be Yorkshire Diamonds making a late run for the (ahem…!) Twitle?

More seriously though… kudos to the folks at Lancashire and Loughborough. The Super League will only be a success over the longer-term if it connects with the fans and Twitter is a great way of making that happen – keep up the good work guys!

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* Surrey don’t have an independent “Surrey Stars” Twitter account, so we’ve put them aside for the purpose of this analysis!

Guest writer Aparna M asks: why no Indian women in the Super League?

When the overseas players for the inaugural Kia Super League were announced earlier this month, there was a notable omission: players from India and Pakistan.

Why? Well, while we don’t have information about the missing Pakistan players, we did get some insights regarding why Indian women cricketers would not be part of the league. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said that they have not yet taken any decision on Indian women’s participation in the league – and that the BCCI was mulling over organizing something similar. 

Now, the request was sent to all the boards in January to show their interest in participating in the league. Why has it taken the BCCI so long to arrive at a decision? Earlier, they had not allowed Indian women cricketers to be part of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia. The reason cited was that India’s domestic season clashed with the tournament. Fair enough.

However, there is nothing scheduled for July and August for the Indian women’s team. In fact, the next assignment for them is in November. So then why were they not allowed to be part of the KSL player pool? Not all those in this pool got picked, of course; but even if a couple of Indian players had got an opportunity to be part of the KSL, it would surely only have helped them to develop their game further.

To improve you need to play more, not less. This could have been such a great learning opportunity for Indian players, both on and off the field. It could have helped them enhance their skills by playing with players from other countries, in turn also sharing their own experiences with their international teammates. Most importantly, when they returned home, they could have shared these experiences with the rest of the national team.

The question arises whether the players were even asked for their opinion. Did they have any say in the matter? Did they get to express their desire to be part of the league and put their names forward? Going by what Thakur has to say, we can safely assume a no to these questions. If by any chance the players were asked, it would be interesting to know their answers, since we have not heard from them as yet.

As for organizing their own women’s T20 tournament, it is a welcome decision by the BCCI. It is to be hoped that they put in maximum efforts to make this a huge success. However, is it going to happen this year? If not, then it makes no sense to not allow Indian players to be part of the KSL this year.

Regarding the possibility of a women’s IPL, some immediate questions come to mind. Would it be linked together with existing IPL teams, as the WBBL was in Australia? Would it be possible in the heat of April and May to have double headers, with the women’s matches held in the afternoons or even late afternoons? While the Women’s WT20 did garner a lot of publicity for the women’s game, many of the matches were still played out to empty stands. This would not be an ideal situation for any domestic women’s league.

The BCCI must take all these things into consideration when they roll out their women’s cricket league. And given the effort that they put into IPL, let’s have no half-hearted measures, please.

Lancashire Thunder

1. Kate Cross (EW)
2. Sarah Taylor (EW) (Capt)
3. Danielle Wyatt (EW)
4. Sarah Coyte (O)
5. Deandra Dottin (O)
6. Hayley Matthews (O)
7. Sophie Ecclestone (EWA)
8. Emma Lamb (EWA)
9. Ellie Threlkeld (EWA)
10. Natalie Brown
11. Georgia Holmes
12. Laura Marshall
13. Natasha Miles
14. Laura Newton
15. Nalisha Patel

Loughborough Lightning

1. Georgia Elwiss (EW) (Capt)
2. Rebecca Grundy (EW)
3. Amy Jones (EW)
4. Beth Langston (EW)
5. Sophie Devine (O)
6. Ellyse Perry (O)
7. Dane van Nierkerk (O)
8. Evelyn Jones (EWA)
9. Alex MacDonald (EWA)
10. Georgie Boyce
11. Thea Brookes
12. Amy Gauvrit
13. Lauren Griffiths
14. Sonia Odedra
15. Paige Scholfield

Southern Vipers

1. Charlotte Edwards (EW) (Capt)
2. Natasha Farrant (EW)
3. Lydia Greenway (EW)
4. Suzie Bates (O)
5. Sara McGlashan (O)
6. Megan Schutt (O)
7. Georgia Adams (EWA)
8. Ellen Burt (EWA)
9. Katie George (EWA)
10. Arran Brindle
11. Isabelle Collis
12. Daisy Gardner
13. Alice Macleod
14. Fi Morris
15. Carla Rudd

Surrey Stars

1. Tammy Beaumont (EW)
2. Laura Marsh (EW)
3. Natalie Sciver (EW) (Capt)
4. Rene Farrell (O)
5. Marizanne Kapp (O)
6. Meg Lanning (O)
7. Sophia Dunkley (EWA)
8. Alex Hartley (EWA)
9. Bryony Smith (EWA)
10. Aylish Cranstone
11. Grace Gibbs
12. Cordelia Griffith
13. Raveena Lakhtaria
14. Beth Morgan
15. Kirstie White

Western Storm

1. Heather Knight (EW) (Capt)
2. Anya Shrubsole (EW)
3. Fran Wilson (EW)
4. Lizelle Lee (O)
5. Rachel Priest (O)
6. Stafanie Taylor (O)
7. Freya Davies (EWA)
8. Sophie Luff (EWA)
9. Amara Carr
10. Jodie Dibble
11. Rosalie Fairbairn
12. Georgia Hennessy
13. Sophie Mackenzie
14. Cait O’Keefe
15. Izzy Westbury

Yorkshire Diamonds

1. Katherine Brunt (EW)
2. Jenny Gunn (EW)
3. Danielle Hazell (EW)
4. Lauren Winfield (EW) (Capt)
5. Alex Blackwell (O)
6. Beth Mooney (O)
7. Shabnim Ismail (O)
8. Hollie Armitage (EWA)
9. Steph Butler (EWA)
10. Alice Davidson Richards
11. Teresa Graves
12. Katie Levick
13. Anna Nicholls
14. Laura Spragg
15. Katie Thompson

England’s Jenny Gunn has followed Danni Wyatt out of the door at Nottinghamshire, making the move across the Midlands to Warwickshire.

Notts were relegated from Division 1 of the Women’s County Championship at the end of last season; and an exeat was therefore expected as their England players seek to maintain a high standard of domestic cricket.

In 10 seasons at Notts, Gunn scored nearly 3,000 runs at an impressive average of 46 (helped by a fair few of Not Outs) and took 83 wickets, including her domestic career-best 5-3 against Kent last season.

The signing is a massive boost for Warwickshire, who have been to the brink of relegation themselves a number of times recently, but have acquired the useful  knack of somehow clinging on.