A day to remember for Issy Wong

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY AT EMERALD HEADINGLEY: Nine months ago, Issy Wong made her Sparks debut against Northern Diamonds and had a day to forget. Today she joined an select group of bowlers with a Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy five-for

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In a match which will likely be remembered for Sarah Glenn's simply unbelievable match-winning 71 (and my God, it was breathtaking), young bowler Issy Wong still managed to catch the eye.

Only four players - Charlotte Taylor, Kathryn Bryce, Katherine Brunt and Fi Morris - were on the bowling honours board ahead of the first round of Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fixtures, each capturing a five-for in the coronavirus-shortened 2020 edition of the 50-over competition.

Just under three-and-a-half hours into the new season, seamer Wong added her name to the list, taking 5 for 49 in Central Sparks’ opening day victory over Northern Diamonds.

Coincidently, Wong was among the 11 Sparks debutants in the reverse fixture last August, a match she described to The Cricketer as "not my worst but it all went belly up."

On that day, the teenager was dismissed for a three-ball duck by Katherine Brunt before bowling seven wides in her five-over spell. She wasn’t the only player to struggle against at Edgbaston – Sparks’ bowlers were helpless as Lauren Winfield-Hill, Hollie Armitage and Nat Sciver chased down 144 inside 25 overs – but it certainly wasn’t the debut she’d dreamed of.

Exactly nine months later at Emerald Headingley, it was a different story.

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Wong nearly struck with the first delivery of the season as Winfield-Hill edged the ball just beyond the reach of the fielder at first slip. Her second over proved costly, dispatched for a pair of boundaries by Armitage, but she soon got her revenge, bowling the Diamonds captain for 13 in the fifth over.

Wong finished her seven-over spell with figures of 1 for 24, the remaining deliveries passing by largely without incident. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the next couple of hours of play.

Having survived the pace onslaught, Winfield-Hill began to attack, quickly building a 50-partnership with Sterre Kalis before reaching her own half-century off just 65 balls in the 21st over.

A quick glance at the Diamonds camp revealed Jenny Gunn deep in conversation with Armitage on the balcony, Ami Campbell standing behind them in shorts and a backward baseball cap, and Linsey Smith sat pitch side with her feet up on a football. They knew they weren’t coming in to bat any time soon.

The 2017 Cricket World Cup winner continued to accelerate as she approached triple digits, pushing her strike rate above 80 as she punished bowlers Liz Russell, Steph Butler, Eve Jones and Ria Fackrell. Only fellow England international Sarah Glenn had any impact, conceding just 35 runs form her 10 overs of spin.

Young Sparks run free: Issy Wong and Milly Home interview

Then, on 96, she spooned a delivery to deep square leg, the catch all but a formality… dropped.

She made no mistake two balls later, crunching a six deep into the stand at long on to pass 100 in emphatic fashion, and followed it up with a near identical strike over cow corner off Fackrell’s next delivery.

The 30-year-old eventually departed three balls later, leaving the field after 162 minutes with 110 runs from 126 deliveries, a strike rate of 87.3, and her side in a commanding position on 207 for 4 with just under nine overs remaining.

By the time Wong returned to the bowling attack in the 45th over, the scoreboard had moved on 232 for 5 (Ami Campbell the fifth wicket to fall, caught by Eve Jones off the bowling of Butler) and England legends Katherine Brunt and Jenny Gunn were in the middle.

Brunt welcomed Wong back into the fray with 10 runs off her first three balls before picking out Fackrell to depart for a quickfire 43.

But where Wong’s eighth over was expensive, her final 12 deliveries were clinical. The free-swinging Alex MacDonald was her third victim, edging the second ball of the 47th over to the heavens and when it came down, England’s wicketkeeper-extraordinaire Amy Jones gathered it with ease. Eight balls later, Wong and Jones combined again to remove Gunn, a routine delivery nicking the bat on its way through to the expectant 'keeper.

And so, to the fifth wicket, the pièce de resistance, the dismissal she will replay over and over again, the ball which produced her maiden five-for. Truth be told, other than identifying Beth Langston as the departing player and Sarah Glenn as the catcher, I cannot accurately recall what happened. My eyes were glued on Wong, waiting for her to hoist her arms aloft – and that, I can confirm, did happen.

Describing her debut campaign for Central Sparks, Wong said, quite maturely: "If you look at the difference between [Diamonds] and two days later at Thunder and the last game against Lightning, I think I grew up quite a lot as a cricketer. The stats don’t look fantastic but as long as I’m progressing and getting better each day, that’s all I can control."

After taking a five-for to start her season, the only question now is, where does she go from here?

 

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