Lightning determined to learn from last season...
LOUGHBOROUGH LIGHTNING head coach Rob Taylor believes lessons learned from last season Kia Super League heartbreak can help his side grow stronger as they prepare for the fourth season of the blue riband event in women’s domestic cricket.
Lightning reached the final of KSL 2018 after playing some scintillating cricket during their league campaign only to fall flat on the big day, bowled out for just 117 by Surrey Stars to lose by 66 runs.
They started their 2019 campaign yesterday (Tuesday) with a home game against Western Storm and are in action again tomorrow (Thursday) at home against Southern Vipers, before away matches against Yorkshire Diamonds on Sunday and Western Storm on Tuesday.
Taylor said: “It was a disappointment because we had played such good cricket the whole way through to finish top of the group and qualify straight to the final.
“But we just didn’t replicate that in the final game and part of that is finals day pressure. We just didn’t perform on the big day when there was a trophy on the line.
“We spent a lot of time together in the hours after the game looking back on the competition and we said we could be really proud of how we played. I do feel that we will have learned a lot from the experience of finals day.”
Taylor, who is supported by former England fast bowler and Ashes-winner Matthew Hoggard as assistant coach, has added Wes Durston, who won the men’s Twenty20 Cup with Somerset in 2005, to his coaching team, bringing more bigmatch knowhow.
There is a new look to the Lightning playing squad this season, with none of last year’s overseas stars coming back.
Australian batters Rachel Haynes and Elyse Villani and New Zealand all-rounder Sophie Devine give way to West Indies all-rounder Hayley Matthews, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu and the hugely experienced South African Mignon du Preez.
Taylor said: “Cricket Australia have taken the decision to rest most of their players in a busy summer for them, which is a blow because they bring real quality to the competition.
“We were looking to having Sophie back because everyone knows what a strong player she is leading the bowling attack and opening the batting, but unfortunately she picked up an injury. But I’m really excited about the overseas players we have coming in.
“Hayley is a young player with so much talent and has showcased it on the international stage, Mignon brings loads of experience and she is a real leader, a brilliant girl who is perfect for our environment.
“We had first-hand experience of Chamari when she played for Yorkshire a couple of years ago and she played a beautiful innings against us. She comes in and looks to hit the ball hard, the kind of
player who can be a factor at the back end of the Powerplay and into the middle overs.
“And Shabnim is a fire power seamer, someone with the X-factor, the potential to blow a game wide open, which I think at the back end of the competition is massive.”
They will be supported by the England quartet of Amy Jones, skipper Georgia Elwiss, Jenny Gunn and Kirstie Gordon,
the young left-spinner who was the competition’s leading wicket-taker in KSL 2018, her debut season.
“We are delighted to have them back,” Taylor said.
“Georgia and Amy are Loughborough graduates who have played for us in the tournament from the start and they have so much experience in the Lightning colours. We are hoping Georgia can lead as she did last year and Amy comes back to us having scored a serious weight of runs and kept brilliantly for England in the last year.
“Jenny offers so much with the ball and is another experienced player, another leader when things get tough.
“Kirstie had a stress fracture diagnosed after the World T20 but she has been managed really well and is good to go for us again.”
Another newcomer to the squad is Kathryn Bryce, the current Scotland Women’s captain, who will be available for the first nine matches before she rejoins her national team to prepare for a World Cup qualification tournament.
“The KSL league has been great for raising the standard of women’s cricket here,” Taylor said. “The first couple of years were probably dominated by overseas players but in the last year we saw more and more local players standing up and putting in performances and putting themselves in contention for England programmes and England tours.”