Left-arm spinner Becky Grundy blogs from the inaugural England women’s batting and spin camp in Colombo.
London, Heathrow. 7.30pm, and some fresh young England Women’s Academy and England Women’s Development Programme U19 faces were eagerly waiting to embark on their first tour as part of ‘Team England’ (aren’t they lucky it’s to the beautiful county of Sri Lanka!). ‘Queen’ Brunt (Katherine Brunt) – who was not feeling so fresh (or young for that matter) – was with no surprise the last to arrive, but thankfully, we all made it safely on the plane and the journey began!
Straight into Colombo’s hot and humid environment, the vests that had previously collected dust in England were swiftly put on and the inaugural England women’s batting and spin camp could begin. After two good training sessions, our first match of the tour versus Sri Lanka Women’s ‘A’ team came around and fortunately, we were able to get a win on the board in a very low-scoring game. Dani Wyatt caused the most of the damage with the bat, scoring 69, whilst Alex Hartley picked up 3-14 with the ball to help get us back in the game. It was a bit unusual to have an attack consisting of purely spinners (except for ‘Queen’ Brunt) but the attacking nature of our fields meant that wickets fell regularly and we could defend our below par score of 150.
The second match was a much more convincing win, with Dani Wyatt again contributing well, hitting 59, after Moose (Lauren Winfield) and Trev (Heather Knight) set a solid opening platform of 84. This allowed the middle order to come in and play with freedom, helping us to set a challenging score of 240. Again we bowled tight aggressive lines, and were aided by the sub-continent conditions – safe to say the ball turns out here!
Training has been challenging and often taken us out of our comfort zones in different ways. Many of the girls have tried batting with a thin bat or without a front pad – although Heather Knight had the shock of her life when one of the net bowlers jogged in off three yards and sent down a nice, quick inswinger! It certainly got her feet moving quickly!
Off the field, Dani Wyatt and Steph Butler have had the pleasure of celebrating their birthdays while we have been out here – both being spoilt with an oversized chocolate cake and our first team meal of the trip. We have also experienced some very impressive thunderstorms, which Jenny Gunn (MBE) will be pleased she is missing…!
Between matches we have been working hard in the nets and over the last couple of days have enjoyed working with England Development Programme Coach Tim Boon. Tim also arranged for us to spend the afternoon at the Surrey Cricket Village, where we were able to coach some local children whose families had been affected by the tsunami over 10 years ago. The kids were definitely not shy of a selfie, and like true Brits, the girls got a few in too at the first sight of the beach!
Match three today and we are hoping for a whitewash to finish the tour on a high!