Abbey Freeborn revels in fresh start as Central Sparks start with a win

HANNAH THOMPSON-RADFORD: A 91-run third-wicket partnership between half century celebrants Amy Jones and debutante Freeborn held off a youthful Western Storm bowling attack

Cardiff: Central Sparks 156-4, Western Storm 136-6 - Central Sparks win by 20 runs

The Midlands switch from east to west for Abbey Freeborn certainly looks to have paid off as the wicketkeeping batting allrounder scored a half-century on debut for Central Sparks.

The West Midlands representatives kickstarted their Charlotte Edwards Cup campaign with a 20-run win on the road to Western Storm.

A 91-run third-wicket partnership between half century celebrants Amy Jones and debutante Freeborn held off a youthful Western Storm bowling attack.

While Ami Campbell's first showing for the West Midlands side also saw a quickfire 30 off 17 balls to back up the pair's endeavours and take Sparks' score to an eventually unbeatable 156-4.

For Freeborn, this was her first victory in the Charlotte Edwards Cup after a winless campaign with Lightning in 2021.

"It was a really tough decision to leave Lightning as I've spent many years at Loughborough and it's almost like a second home for me," she said.

"The girls are brilliant, but I thought I had spent so long there I needed a new environment, and a new challenge and Sparks has brought that for me. I can already feel myself becoming a better cricketer which is fantastic,” said the joint Sparks top scorer.

^{Freeborn has joined Central Sparks from Lightning (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)}

"Everything has been going really well at Sparks, the team are brilliant, the coaches are brilliant and we're in for an exciting summer ahead. We've trained really hard over winter and especially in preseason we've learnt a lot about our games, and we've got everything right now and everyone in the right batting order and our tactics right."

Sparks elected for a change in the top order from last season, with Issy Wong coming into open after a sensational 94 off 33 balls against Storm in a pre-season T20 warm up. But neither captain Eve Jones nor Wong could find their form as both departed early doors with the score on 13 for 2 after 2.1 overs. It was then the task of England's Amy Jones and Abbey Freeborn to steady the ship.

“Any game on debut is nerve wracking and today I definitely felt the nerves going out to bat," added Freeborn.

"Obviously, our batting line up is really strong, so I feel very lucky to be batting at four and given the situation we had losing a couple of early wickets it was tricky to balance it.

"But it was all about that balance of steadying the ship so that we didn't lose to many wickets in quick succession but also exploiting the depth that we have in our batting line up. I think that's one of our strengths, we bat all the way down to No.11 and we have big hitters that didn't get to come in today.

"It feels pretty special to do this on debut. But to get the win on the board is brilliant for the team and we've got so much more to give. It'll be interesting to see what our full potential is as a team as we’re far from it at the moment."

^{Sophie Luff hit 42 in a losing cause for Western Storm (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

Both Jones and Freeborn struck at over 100 but boundaries were difficult to find on a large Sophia Gardens pitch. Freeborn's 52 off 48 consisted of just three fours.

"We're normally a boundary-hitting side so it was more challenging in that sense and so we knew we had to run hard and hit more twos and threes than we perhaps wanted to. But that's something that as a team we adapted really well to.

"I had done a lot of work on playing straight and with the full face of the bat, that had been one of my weaknesses for the past few years, but I have definitely got better at that. So, I looked to play straight, hit the boundaries straight and limit the dot balls.

"It was absolutely brilliant to bat with Amy Jones, she's such an experienced player and it was a good opportunity to learn from her and she batted really well and to put on a good partnership with her genuinely means a lot and it's a moment I'm going to be proud of for a long time."

Top image credit: Laura Malkin