Loughborough Lightning are Adams' new family as batter is among trio to arrive from Southern Vipers

Georgia Adams, the daughter of former Derbyshire, Sussex and England batsman Chris Adams, played in two consecutive KSL Finals for Vipers team, both against Western Storm

^{Georgia Adams has moved to Loughborough Lightning}

Talented batter Georgia Adams leads a trio of players from former Kia Super League champions Southern Vipers who have joined Loughborough Lightning for the 2018 season.

Adams, the daughter of former Derbyshire, Sussex and England batsman Chris Adams, played in two consecutive KSL Finals for Vipers team, both against Western Storm.  

Adams made 15 off 17 balls before being run out by England’s Women’s World Cup hero Anya Shrubsole in the 2016 final as Vipers won by seven wickets. Storn took their revenge with a seven-wicket win last year.

Linsey Smith, 23, and 20-year-old Tara Norris, both left-arm medium pace bowlers, are also making the switch from Vipers to Lightning for the Twenty20 competition. 

At 24, Adams, who has played representative cricket for England Under-19 and England Academy women’s teams, brings a wealth of experience and form as Lightning bid to reach finals day again.

She has followed in her father’s footsteps by captaining Sussex, who she led to the Division Two title in the Royal London-sponsored ECB Women’s County Championship earlier this summer, averaging 34.50 in the seven-match 50-overs series and making 106 from 104 balls in Sussex’s opening match against Derbyshire, in which she opened alongside England’s Danni Wyatt.

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Her Sussex side were also runners-up behind Middlesex in Division One of the Vitality Women’s Twenty20 Cup, Adams making two half-centuries in the eight-match series.

Adams will quickly feel at home in Lightning’s base at the National Cricket Academy on the Loughborough University campus. Apart from being part of the England Academy women’s set-up for three years, she studied sports science at Loughborough and played for the Loughborough MCCU team.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Lightning family this summer for the KSL as I have always had a strong affiliation to Loughborough,” she said. “The set-up here is second to none, with the professional environment, first-class coaching team and world class facilities.

“I am really excited to see the impact it will have on me as a player. I can’t wait to get out on the pitch with the girls now and see what the competition brings.”

She will see plenty of familiar faces too. Georgia Elwiss, the Lightning captain, is also a Sussex player, as is the 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Abi Freeborn. 

The Kia Women’s Super League, a six-team Twenty20 competition, begins on Sunday, July 22, when Lightning begin their challenge away to Lancashire Thunder in Southport.

Each team plays 10 matches and the first three in the points table after the final round of matches on August 18 qualify for Finals Day at the 1st Central County Ground in Hove on Monday, August 27.

Report courtesy of the ECB Reporters Network

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