It was the Emma Lamb show at Trent Bridge
With spring still in full bloom, it felt fitting that Emma Lamb, a player on the cusp of a regular spot in the England team, delivered with both bat and ball for Lancashire, right in front of new England coach Charlotte Edwards, in the opening round of the Metro Bank One Day Cup at Trent Bridge.
After a season away from bowling due to back surgery, Lamb is free to bowl again, and marked her return with 3 for 32, before guiding Lancashire home with an unbeaten 130, to seal a comfortable eight-wicket win with five overs to spare. Lamb was keen to praise the rest of her team for their performance against a Blaze side missing key bowlers, but still packed with experience.
She said this time, they’ve got a lot of depth, with two new players, Eve Jones and Grace Potts, with their overseas return adding a lot to the group. She added that people have worked on their games over the winter, and thinks it’s going to show this year with the team excited to win more games.
That depth is crucial to Lancashire’s campaign, and Lamb also highlighted the impact of Hannah Jones, a player who does not always get the spotlight of fellow left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, but remains integral to the side. Lamb said “they all know how good and consistent she is, and that’s why she’s in the team.” stressing that “no one in that first XI flies under the radar — everyone’s got a part to play.”
The Blaze are one of the fancied teams this year, but Lancashire posed them problems on a used pitch, with the spin duo of Lamb and Jones asking very different questions; one looking to turn the ball in, the other turning it away, unsettling an experienced Blaze line-up.
Lamb was not the only player with a point to prove to Edwards. Tammy Beaumont, a senior figure in the England setup, fell early, out for five to the tall left-armer Mahika Gaur, another player Edwards would have been keen to watch closely.
Amy Jones, the England and Blaze wicketkeeper, started brightly with 30 but, as has so often been the case, could not push on to anchor the innings. It was Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce who top-scored for The Blaze, carrying the momentum from her Player of the Tournament performance at the World Cup Qualifier in Pakistan into this match.
Georgia Elwiss, who joined The Blaze from Southern Vipers over the winter, did her best to steady the innings with a composed 49; the kind of knock you would expect from someone with her experience. She acknowledged the absence of Kirstie Gordon was a blow: you’re always going to be “losing a wicket-taker who’s incredibly passionate about the game and thinks about the game brilliantly as well. So she’s a big loss for us. But you know, with the bowling attack we had today, we probably would have expected to do a little better.”
Even with Elwiss’s contribution, The Blaze’s total of 234 all out was never likely to be enough. England leg-spinner Sarah Glenn was present, but the control never quite materialised. Lamb, riding her luck with a few dropped chances, carried Lancashire home with a spring in their step.
Lancashire showed a performance that suggests they are aware of their identity, and while neither side may be the finished article, this felt like a performance that should be taken note of in the ever-shifting dynamic of the women’s game. There were certainly displays that will no doubt have pleased Charlotte Edwards.
