News

EXCLUSIVE: Middlesex To Go Pro By 2029

Posted by

2

Middlesex Director of Cricket Alan Coleman has told CRICKETher that the club intend to self-fund professional contracts by 2029, in order to ensure they are best-placed to progress into Tier One.

Last year, Middlesex failed in their bid to host a Tier One side, meaning they will be locked out of the top tier of women’s domestic cricket for at least the next 4 years.

But the club have embarrassed the ECB with their results this season, winning 18 of their 21 matches, beating Yorkshire twice, and finishing as inaugural champions in the Tier Two Women’s Vitality Blast.

“The game at Northants where we won the T20 was an astounding effort – I’ve never seen a team go through a whole Finals Day without losing a wicket,” Coleman said.

“It’s a challenge that the team have embraced, being amateurs, against professional teams – not only Yorkshire but Glamorgan, who are going to be Tier One in 2027.”

Middlesex’s challenge now is how best to keep together and develop a team of amateurs, many of whom are doing demanding full-time jobs – as typified by all-rounder Gaya Gole, who works long hours as a Management Consultant in the City.

For Coleman – who was present at Middlesex’s semi-final against Yorkshire on Sunday – the answer is for the club to directly invest in their women’s squad.

“Middlesex are incredibly ambitious and desperately want to invest in our women’s team,” he said. “There’s no greater deserving team for that investment.”

“Our challenge is to keep improving and keep developing across this period to ensure that we are as ready as possible for Tier 1 cricket as and when hopefully the ECB decide to open it up.”

“This is year 1 of a 4-year plan to be professional at the end of that period. And we almost want to, without sounding arrogant, take it out of the ECB’s hands and say, ‘You have to make us professional because of the performances that our players have put in, in Tier 2’.”

“So that’s the plan, and a part of that will be ensuring that our players are rewarded for the cricket that they play.”

The club are still working out exactly what that looks like, but we shouldn’t be surprised if we see the first tranche of part-time contracts awarded ahead of next season.

“We need to continue to invest in this very, very talented group of players to ensure they get the opportunity they deserve,” Coleman added.

TIER 2 SEMI-FINAL: Middlesex v Yorkshire: New York Cheesecake… Cooked The Sterre Kalis Way!

Posted by

You can’t rush a New York Cheesecake – not when you are baking it, anyway! (When you are eating it – yes, rush away!) But in the baking, it needs to cook low and slow.

In that sense, Sterre Kalis’s match-winning half-century for Yorkshire in their One Day Cup semi-final showdown against Middlesex was the perfect New York Cheesecake – cooked low, and cooked slow.

T2 Semi-Final: Yorkshire v Middlesex 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-09-07T09:55:59.003Z

As Kalis faced her first ball from Saskia Horley at the start of the 11th over, Yorkshire were in just a wee bit of trouble, having lost two set batters – Lauren Winfield-Hill (for 16) and Erin Thomas (for 38) – within the space of 4 balls. That left the visitors 55-3, with both batters at the crease on nought.

The situation wasn’t desperate by any means – chasing a lowish 194, Yorkshire had time on their side. But given that the head-t0-head between the teams this season read “Middlesex 2 – Yorkshire 0”, including a 10-wicket drubbing in the final of the Tier 2 Blast, the honorary Yorkie from Den Haag in the Netherlands must have been wondering if history was about to deliver it’s infamous second encore, this time as farce?

So she dug in.

You could almost hear her telling herself – low and slow; low and slow – as she and Maddie Ward added just 15 runs in 9 overs between the 10th and 19th. A 4 driven down the ground by Ward at the start of the 19th over was the first boundary since the 8th over.

Middlesex 194 v Yorkshire 195-4 #ODC 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-09-07T15:45:03.068Z

Even with 8 off the 19th over, the entire early middle phase produced just 23 runs for Yorkshire – it was soporific stuff, and for a brief period the game turned against them. Though it wasn’t really relevant, with no rain forecast, they fell behind on DLS, and also on the WinHer Win Predictor.

Middlesex 194 v Yorkshire 195-4 #ODC 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-09-07T15:44:46.575Z

Nonetheless, Kalis didn’t panic – despite facing dot after dot (45 of ’em in all!) of defensive shots back to the bowler, or drives to fielders on the ring; and despite going at a Strike Rate of well under 50, she kept her cool, and lowly… slowly… the small crowd at Radlett began to wake up and smell the cheesecake.

Two-and-a-half an over, became three-and-a-half an over, helped by some woeful fielding and a succession of dropped catches from Middlesex. But at the point Ward was dismissed (Artemis Downer finally holding on to a skier at cow corner) Kalis was still only on 29 off 57 balls, at a Strike Rate of just 51.

The entrance of Ami Campbell did then flick a switch – the shots got bigger and so did the run rate. Kalis’s next 36 runs were scored from just 22 balls – 3x the Strike Rate she’d been going before – to get Yorkshire home with more than 10 overs to spare, with Campbell 34* at the other end. A New York cheesecake, perfectly baked.

Some credit must also go to Yorkshire’s bowlers – particularly Beth Langston, who bowled 10 in a row up-top, taking 2-38 and deserving some of the credit for the wickets that fell at the other end too. By the end of the 12th over, Middlesex had lost Issy Routledge and Artemis Downer, both edging pacy deliveries from Langston to Lauren Winfield-Hill behind the sticks; as well as Finty Trussler and Pippa Sproul. Those 4 between them have scored nearly 60% of Middlesex’s runs in the One Day Cup this season, so losing all for barely a peppercorn meant it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the home side.

Captain Saskia Horley fought back with 83 off 100 balls to get Middlesex back into the mix, assisted by an unbeaten 48 from Gaya Gole, and if the Middlesex tail had been able to wag just a little more it might have made a big difference. Chasing something more like 220 or 230 wouldn’t have allowed Kalis quite the luxury to slow-bake her innings the way she did.

It was a disappointing end to the season for Middlesex, but given the way the dice were loaded against them as basically an amateur side playing Yorkshire’s professionals, they should be immensely proud to have achieved a first-placed finish in the table, in addition to their Blast win.

And as he lined up commiseration beers for his side, Middlesex’s Director of Cricket Alan Coleman praised them for what he described as an “unbelievable season” in which the Tier 2 side have won 18 of their matches 21 matches:

“The pride that they can take in the cricket they’ve played is immense. As a club, we couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve achieved.”

For Yorkshire, they march on to next weekend’s final, where they face Glamorgan, with nothing less than a win the minimum expectation.

EXCLUSIVE: Yorkshire Coach Pyrah Clears Up Lauren Winfield-Hill CPL Confusion

Posted by

The 2025 Women’s Caribbean Premier League got underway on Saturday without Lauren Winfield-Hill – who was instead playing a key role captaining Yorkshire to victory against Middlesex in Sunday’s One-Day Cup semi-final.

Winfield-Hill had been named in the squad for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, but there was some confusion earlier this week when it was confirmed that she had been replaced by Ireland’s Amy Hunter.

Fans were unsure if Yorkshire had asked Winfield-Hill to miss the tournament or – given that they are her main employer – pulled rank once they reached the One-Day Cup semi-final.

However, in an interview with CRICKETher, Yorkshire coach Richard Pyrah clarified the situation, confirming that Winfield-Hill’s inclusion in the tournament had always been provisional.

“If we’d not got the result in the last game of the group stages, our season would be done, so that would have allowed her to go and play in the CPL,” he said.

“She put her name down just in case we didn’t get through – then she’d go out there. But she was always going to be available for us, however long we carried on for, which is now the final.”

He added that the decision to remain with the Yorkshire team for the semi-final and final was entirely Winfield-Hill’s call.

PLAYER RANKINGS: The Hundred

Posted by

Batting Rankings

Batting Rankings Matches Runs Dot % Single % Boundary % Strike Rate
1. P Litchfield 10 292 38 28 29 160
2. MM Lanning 8 287 38 37 21 137
3. NR Sciver-Brunt 8 256 26 46 20 150
4. GM Harris 9 214 25 44 25 175
5. D Perrin 10 260 47 21 23 137
6. KM Chathli 9 220 37 32 25 152
7. D Wyatt-Hodge 9 239 37 36 18 128
8. L Wolvaardt 9 207 34 41 18 131
9. A Gardner 8 187 28 44 19 145
10. A Capsey 8 191 33 40 21 141
11. A Sutherland 10 206 29 46 15 129
12. CR Knott 9 196 34 39 21 135
13. EL Lamb 8 182 22 51 18 141
14. EA Perry 8 208 36 41 15 123
15. SIR Dunkley 8 214 37 37 16 119
16. BF Smith 8 171 45 24 26 141
17. BL Mooney 8 175 40 36 19 126
18. CL Griffith 8 156 34 42 20 138
19. ME Bouchier 9 186 42 37 15 112
20. A Davidson-Richards 10 178 47 29 19 116
Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate ©CRICKETher/cricsheet.org

Bowling Rankings

Bowling Rankings Matches Wickets Dot % Boundary % Wide % Economy
1. LK Bell 9 19 55 11 6 5.40
2. KL Cross 10 15 41 12 2 6.49
3. HK Matthews 8 14 43 11 0 6.08
4. A Sutherland 10 16 38 12 7 7.00
5. SFM Devine 9 13 43 14 8 6.71
6. M Corteen-Coleman 9 11 42 12 1 5.75
7. G Ballinger 10 11 53 14 4 6.29
8. ML Schutt 8 12 50 16 3 7.05
9. MK Villiers 9 12 34 16 1 7.66
10. EL Arlott 7 12 38 15 3 7.84
11. S Ecclestone 8 10 49 15 3 6.56
12. JL Jonassen 8 11 43 17 0 7.41
13. KL Gordon 8 11 34 16 1 7.71
14. S Ismail 8 9 49 16 3 6.81
15. GL Adams 9 8 40 11 1 6.10
16. L Filer 6 8 44 12 3 6.13
17. M Kapp 8 9 49 15 5 7.00
18. KE Bryce 6 9 39 15 2 7.36
19. A King 8 9 35 17 1 8.04
20. A Gardner 8 8 33 17 1 7.66
Ranking = Wickets / Economy ©CRICKETher/cricsheet.org

THE HUNDRED FINAL: Superchargers v Brave – Swing Low Sweet Superchargers

Posted by

3

Southern Brave have been involved in a few low-scoring games this season – chasing 106 against Rockets with two balls to spare; chasing 111 versus Fire with just one ball remaining; and perhaps more significantly in the context of this match, defending 106 against Fire in their final group match. They won them all – the first time any team has gone through the group stages undefeated.

Now, in the final at Lord’s, they needed to do it all over again, after posting a slightly disappointing 115-6 against Superchargers. Lord’s isn’t The Oval, of course – anyone hoping for a repeat of yesterday’s run-fest in the Eliminator doesn’t know their North London from their South; but nonetheless Brave would have been hoping for more.

Brave 115-6 v Superchargers #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-31T14:27:10.672Z

Ultimately, they probably needed a lot more – Superchargers chased it with 12 balls to spare, and with very little urgency required. There were a couple of moments in Superchargers’ chase that the Brave might rue. First they failed to go upstairs for a DRS review on Nic Carey, which would have been out. It would have been a golden duck – it was Carey’s first ball – but she went on to top score with 35 and be named the Meerkat Match Hero. Then later a delivery from Lauren Bell nicked the bails, which lit up but didn’t fall. Annabel Sutherland survived, and went on to hit the winning runs with a 6 over mid on.

The Sutherland wicket might not have mattered – Superchargers needed a straightforward 16 from 20 balls by that point, with two proper batters (Hollie Armitage and Bess Heath) plus the highly experienced and pretty unflappable Kate Cross still to come. But the Carey one definitely did; and would have made up somewhat for a disappointing season from the bowler in question – Chloe Tryon, who will go home with £20,000 in her pocket having taken 4 wickets and scored 31 runs in 9 games for Brave this summer.

Brave 115-6 v Superchargers 119-3 #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-31T16:01:11.850Z

None of Brave’s overseas stars really fired today. Laura Wolvaardt at least can legitimately claim that she got an unplayable delivery from Kate Cross, who will have perhaps enjoyed a moment of ‘Look What You Could Have Won?’ on the day Isa Guha let-slip live on the BBC that she has lost her central contract. (We understand that she was told this well before the World Cup squad was announced, which… shall we say… certainly adds an additional dimension to those discussions.)

But Sophie Devine chewing up 28 balls – over a quarter of the innings – for just 23 runs made it very difficult for everyone around her; and Tryon “chipping in” by stuttering to 5 off 10 balls at the death was pretty inexcusable – you have to hit out or get out in this shortest of short formats, especially at that stage!

Prior to the game, all the talk in the press box was of Davina Perrin, after her incredible performance in the Eliminator. Men’s cricket journalists who would have struggled to spell her name 24 hours before were sidling up to media managers trying to wrangle an exclusive interview with the girl who now looks set to be cricket’s next global superstar.

And why not? That unbelievable innings will turn her into a millionaire within a year or two, and deservedly so. But expecting her to do it twice in one weekend was probably a bit much; and personally I was simply keeping my fingers crossed that she didn’t let the pressure get to her and dry-up like a mountain stream in a heatwave. And she didn’t – 17 off 16 balls wasn’t a match-winning knock but it was no disgrace either. It got them all-but through the powerplay and gave them the foundation they needed to go on and win the game by playing (mainly!) sensible disciplined cricket.

The Hundred Final at Lord’s #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-31T13:17:19.851Z

Phoebe Litchfield was named Player of the Tournament, after a cameo today where she dragged out all the classics like an old music hall performer – the sweep, the reverse sweep, the switch sweep – we saw ’em all! No doubt she has been great entertainment, and she did finish as the leading run-scorer; but if I was Lauren Bell I’d feel slightly aggrieved I think. No one has taken 19 wickets in a Hundred season before, whilst both the last two top run-scorers (Nat Sciver-Brunt in 2024 (303) and Danni Wyatt-Hodge in 2023 (295)) scored more than Litchfield’s 292 runs. If Bell’s team had won the final, might that have made the difference? Should it have? I’m not sure.

So ends the era of The Hundred… at least in its current form. The format itself may drag on for another season or two; but it is certainly doomed after that, and I’d just bite the bullet and change it now, mainly because so much else will change in 2026.

As I look out from the Lord’s press box with the men’s final being played, I see thousands of kids in Invincibles’ bucket hats and sea-green shirts. They’ll be chip-paper next year, with the team from south of the river likely renamed MI London and playing in blue; as will all those Superchargers shirts being worn by the boys and girls who cheered their women’s team’s win earlier. The full house for both games proves that the public has taken this competition to their hearts. The challenge now will be to keep it there for The Hundred 2.0.

Davina Perrin

THE HUNDRED ELIMINATOR: Superchargers v Spirit – Perrin-Perrin Sauce

Posted by

2

Every autumn, The Cricket Society hand out the Charlotte Edwards Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year award to the most promising young player in England and Wales. So let’s flashback to October 2022. Alice Capsey – a former winner of the award – has just made her international debut; and this year’s winner is a young lady from Birmingham – Davina Perrin.

Flashback to October 2022 – Davina Perrin receiving the Cricket Society Charlotte Edwards Award for Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-30T14:48:53.053Z

Attending the awards ceremony at The Oval with her proud parents, Perrin herself is shy – almost demure – as she receives her plaque and mingles with guests.

Three years later, Perrin, now a professional cricketer with Warwickshire and the Northern Superchargers, and her parents are back at The Oval; and Perrin is receiving another award – the Meerkat Match Hero – following her performance in the Eliminator (AKA semi-final) for this year’s Hundred.

Post-play, an emotional Davina Perrin is greeted by her family and her first ever coach Charles Harrison, who she says is “the first coach who ever really believed in me”.

— Raf Nicholson (@rafnicholson.bsky.social) 2025-08-30T16:45:02.512Z

But this was a very different woman to the one who had received that award 3 years previously – all confidence and swagger, having become just the second woman to score a century in The Hundred, and doing it with all the pressure of a knockout game in front of over 10,000 fans.

For 5 seasons, Alice Capsey has been the poster-girl of The Hundred after making a half-century at Lord’s in only her second game. That innings ultimately catapulted Capsey into the England team, perhaps in retrospect a little too rapidly as her development seemed to stall. Capsey hasn’t had a bad Hundred in 2025 – 191 runs and two half-centuries isn’t a bad return – but today Davina Perrin dominated a match in a way Capsey never quite has.

This wasn’t just the best innings of the day, or even of 2025 – it was the best we’ve seen in 5 seasons of this competition. The Hundred now has a new poster-girl. Jon Lewis take note: this is how you inspire and entertain.

Coming into this match, there were still a few question marks over Perrin. We’d seen good performances from her in her county and regional shirts; but a series of poor returns for England A and in big games hinted that there might be a problem – could she cope in those pressure situations that are the real test of a cricketer’s worth?

I think it is fair to say, we have our answer now.

Having been put in to bat, with a forecast of rain likely to affect the second innings, Superchargers needed to get runs on the board; and with Perrin and Alice Davidson-Richards at the crease, they went off at a decent clip, reaching 41-0 at the end of the powerplay. Well… I say Perrin and Davidson-Richards; but ADR had very little to do with it. When Perrin brought up a 25-ball 50 off the 31st ball, ADR was on 3, having faced just 6 deliveries.

Superchargers 214-5 v Spirit #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-30T14:30:43.203Z

By the time ADR was dismissed for 18, Perrin had reached 85, as Superchargers plundered an incredible 68 runs from 25 balls in the Early Middle phase. Perrin’s hundred, off 42 balls, was greeted with a standing ovation from the Oval crowd. Some had come to see the Superchargers; some the Spirit; some the two men’s teams who were scheduled to meet later. Every one of them will go home today with just one memory though, having witnessed something truly remarkable from Perrin, as ball after ball was dispatched to the boundary.

It is fair to say that it wasn’t a great bowling performance from Spirit, though probably one that was in keeping with what they’ve done in this competition, where they have been decidedly average with the ball, ranking 6th across the 8 teams.

The Hundred: Team Bowling Numbers

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-30T12:56:00.453Z

But you’ve still got to hit your shots; you’ve still got to find your gaps; you’ve still got to generate your power. Phoebe Litchfield, whose numbers across the whole competition have been better than Perrin’s, didn’t find it easy out there initially; but Perrin was a cut above even Australia’s most promising young player today, hitting sixes that didn’t just cross the rope, but soared over the Oval’s white picket-fence and into the crowd. The Spirit fielders had no chance.

Superchargers 214-5 v Spirit #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-30T14:31:18.117Z

With Nic Carey coming in at the end and sweeping Grace Harris for 22 runs in the biggest set of the match, Superchargers finished on 214 – an absolute mountain, which it would have taken a miracle for Spirit to climb.

Superchargers 214-5 v Spirit 172-9 #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-30T15:52:35.487Z

Spirit gave it their best shot – they were slightly ahead after the powerplay, but they lost 3 wickets in the process, including Grace Harris, promoted to open the batting in the knowledge that Spirit needed something extraordinary from her, for a two-ball duck. Charli Knott went hard (harder than Perrin had) but couldn’t keep it going and once she was lost, the only question was whether the weather would finish the game before the players on the pitch could.

A succession of blustery showers threatened to end things early, but the umpires were able to keep things going for the full game to be completed with Spirit on 172-9 – a total that would have won all bar two games in this season’s competition. But not this one. Davina Perrin had already long seen to that.

THE HUNDRED: Brave v Fire – Fire’s Batters Burn Out At The Bowl

Posted by

Southern Brave will go into Sunday’s Hundred final with an unbeaten record of 8 wins from 8 matches, after pulling a rabbit out of a hat to defend 106 at the Utilita Bowl.

It makes them the first team in the history of the competition to finish the group stages undefeated. When Brave won the tournament previously, back in 2023, their one loss in 8 games came against Fire at home in Southampton – but Fire couldn’t spoil their party again today.

Meerkat Match Hero Lauren Bell added to her chart-topping wicket-tally (19 at 7.47) with extraordinary figures of 4 for 6, including a third set during which Tammy Beaumont and Jess Jonassen both holed out to fielders in the deep.

But Bell was the beneficiary of a team bowling effort in which Brave’s four spinners – Chloe Tryon, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, Georgia Adams and Mady Villiers – put a stranglehold on Fire’s chase. Even before the wickets started to fall, Fire’s lack of runs had swung the Win-Her dial in Brave’s favour:

Brave 106-8 v Fire 77-9 #The100 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-08-28T16:40:26.724Z

“It was a tricky pitch,” Bell said afterwards. “We chatted about it before we went out, that dots were going to be massive, almost as important as wickets, and as soon as the run rate got above a run a ball on that pitch we knew it would be a tricky chase. Mads [Villiers] and Coco [Corteen-Coleman] and Gads [Adams] bowled some really important sets.”

Bell gave the credit to her teammates but the fact that Fire scored just 47 runs in their first 50 balls, despite only being 1 wicket down, is symptomatic of just how miserable their efforts with the bat have been this season. Between them, Fire’s top five batters have managed two half-centuries this season – both scored by one Sophia Dunkley. Hayley Matthews – who was talismanic for Fire in their 2024 campaign – has barely scraped a run together, averaging 19.

Today, she was scratchiness personified, managing just a single boundary before failing to get the necessary elevation to clear Villiers at deep midwicket. With Matthews in a slump-spiral as deep as this, it’s perhaps a good thing that West Indies won’t be featuring in October’s World Cup.

Brave had themselves struggled with the bat, sinking to 14 for 2 early on after Fire put them in to bat on a pitch made sticky with rain. With Sunday’s final looming, Brave chose to fiddle around with their middle order to offer chances to Freya Kemp, Chloe Tryon, Villiers and Georgia Adams, who have had very little to do with the bat this season. Adams, for example, had faced just 11 balls prior to today’s match; but her elevation to number 6 against the Fire gave Brave’s skipper (who finished 30 not out from 26 balls) to bat herself into a modicum of form.

Not only did that ensure Brave got to a total which was (just about) defendable, it could end up mattering a lot on Sunday if the final proves to be a tight match.