Cricket: England women look to complete ODI whitewash

The England women’s cricket team, featuring Heywood’s Kate Cross and Rochdale-born Heather Knight, are looking to complete a whitewash of the One Day International series against the West Indies.

Their first ODI in Leicester on 6 June saw England win by 208 runs and they won again three days later in Worcester by 121 runs before rain stopped play (Duckworth Lewis).

During the first match, captain Heather Knight hit 94 with Kate Cross taking 1-12 for a 318-9 victory against the West Indies’ 110 all out.

The win was England's biggest winning margin against West Indies, beating the previous 146-run victory in Sydney in the 2009 World Cup.

Cross then took two wickets in the second match, with Knight making 14 runs.

Sunday's victory earned England two points in the International Cricket Council's Women's Championship, taking them to the verge of qualification for the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand.

The team is now looking for a third win in their final match in Chelmsford on Thursday (13 June).

 

 

Cross, 27, began playing cricket at the age of eight, rising to international level after being the first female to be accepted into the Lancashire County Cricket Club academy.

She was recently named as the new captain of Lancashire Thunder for the 2019 Kia Super League season.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/4/sport-news/128385/cricket-kate-cross-appointed-lancashire-thunder-captain

In 2015, Cross became the first woman to play in the Central Lancashire League in its 123-year history. Cross made her Lancashire debut at the age of just 13 and became the first girl to be accepted into the Lancashire Academy at 15.

She won her first England cap in 2013 and has played for Thunder in every edition of the Women's Cricket Super League – Cross has also enjoyed two spells at the Women’s Big Bash League with Brisbane Heat and Perth Scorchers.

Captain Knight, 28, began playing cricket in boys’ and men’s teams when she was also eight after moving to Plymouth.

A talented right-handed batswoman, she played for Plymstock Cricket Club and at county level for Devon.

She was part of the England squad which reclaimed the Ashes against Australia in 2013 and helped retain them in 2014.

Knight received an OBE on the 2018 New Year’s honour list and was named among Wisden Almanack’s Five Cricketers of the Year for 2017 after she led the women’s team to a triumphant World Cup victory last summer.

England women will face the West Indies again later this month for the International Twenty20 before a one-day tour match against Australia at the end of June.