Jenny gunning for Diamonds

Jenny Gunn

Three weeks on and we haven’t done too badly, with only two games of cricket cancelled.

Playing the Rubies who were still unbeaten, we got off to a great start, thanks to a great opening bowling partnership from Lynsey Askew and Nikki Shaw. Nikki removed Sarah Taylor with the second ball of the innings, followed by Natalie Lane and then the in-form Lydia Greenway.

We had the Rubies on 44 for six with myself picking up two wickets and Isa Guha getting one. We thought we were doing well before some great batting and a well needed partnership from Caroline Atkins and Anya Shrubsole took them to 98 for six off 35 overs before the rain hit.

The game was delayed for two hours, and it was decided that would be the end of the Rubies’ innings. In reply we were required to get 96 off 29 overs due to the Duckworth-Lewis method.

We were 40 for no wicket, but a bowling change turned the whole game around.

Holly Colvin came on and took three quick wickets and we never recovered from there, falling 14 runs short.

Holly finished with 5-27. Someone has now given Holly the nickname Michelle Pfeiffer because of the amount of five-wicket hauls she is getting.

I can remember someone asking me ‘why is she called Michelle, is it because she looks like Michelle Pfeiffer’, not thinking ‘Pfeiffer’ and ‘five wickets’ go together, but don’t worry Lydia I won’t tell anyone it was you.

Holly Colvin has been given the nickname Michelle Pfeiffer for her five-fors © Getty Images

We were supposed to play a Twenty20 match after the Somerset and Northants game on Taunton but unfortunately it had to be called off due to heavy rain.

But we did manage to play an England XI against an Invitational XI on June 26 at Edgbaston.

Jane Smit, Tails (Claire Taylor) and myself were in the invitational team along with three overseas players - Vic Lind from New Zealand, Australia’s Briana Binch and Megan White who plays for Queensland.

We batted first on a freezing cold morning and got off to a good start with Laura Joyce getting us going with a 29-ball 26. Tails scored 32 runs off 22 balls, and we finished on 117 for eight with Beth (Morgan), Isa (Guha) and Cheesey (Rosalie Birch) picking up two wickets each.

Sarah Taylor and Lynsey Askew opened the batting for the England XI and were well above the run-rate before a few bowling changes got us back into the game.

I managed to get Sarah out caught at mid-wicket, but the pick of our bowlers was Briana Binch who picked up two wickets for seven runs from three overs.

The England XI won in the last over but we did well to take them that far. There was also a difficult chance at deep mid-wicket by Vic Lind, which might have swung the match in our favour.

Nikki Shaw played an active part for the Diamonds in the Super Fours © DJM Images

Nikki Shaw smashed one out to her and she dived full length low to her left and it just popped out. I think it would have been the best catch I have ever seen if Vic had held it.

July 7 was our last round of Super Fours and we were playing the Sapphires.

The game was delayed by an hour, but the groundsmen did a brilliant job to get it fit to play on with the amount of rain we have had recently - even taking the time to blow it dry with what looked like a Hoover.

We won the toss and put them into bat, starting off well with Lynsey getting an early wicket, but from there the Sapphires had a great partnership between Tails and Laura Boorman.

At drinks we had a team discussion on how we were going to break this partnership and came out all guns blazing removing both of them with the score on 121.

From there we carried on taking wickets at regular times with some tight bowling, which created the pressure we wanted. They were all out for 154, Lynsey finishing with 3-14 off eight overs and Charlotte Russell taking 3-21 off 10.

Ebony and I felt we were working well together bringing up our 50-run partnership before an interesting catch at mid-off by Jasmine Titmuss saw the end of Ebony for 16.

This was Lottie’s (Charlotte Edwards) first game back for us and she looked like she had never been away. I brought my 50 up and Lottie followed up straight after with hers. We shared an 89-run partnership before I was caught by Tails at square-leg off the bowling of Jenny Laycock for 60.

Lottie finished the game on 69 and we won in the 27th over by eight wickets, which means we went into the game against the Emeralds playing out for second place in a winner-takes-all match.

Charlotte Edwards looked like she had never been away from the scene © DJM Images

Nikki and Lynsey again started off well but we just couldn’t get a breakthrough. I came on first change as Laura Joyce and Steph Davies were just starting to make batting look more easy. They had just brought up their 50 partnership at drinks and again we were in need of a strong team talk and a plan of action.

Our team talks seem to have been working well this weekend as for the second day running we removed both openers quickly and brought two new batters to the crease.

Steph thought she had got the ball just past me enough but for a change my extra long arms came in handy and got her run-out at the bowlers end, and then I got Laura caught by Isa at point to get us back in the game.

The next to go was the big wicket of Beth Morgan off the bowling of Charlotte Russell. I think Beth will be fuming that she picked out the tallest person on the field at mid-wicket (me) and not one of the 5ft people in our team.

We then witnessed some of the best fielding in the tournament, by Ebony at square-leg. Charlie was bowling to Alexia Walker and she hit the ball to behind square.

Ebony dived full-length to her right, stopped the ball one handed, threw the ball from lying down over the top of the stumps to run Jane Smit out.

Crispy was batting well so we decided to give her singles and attack the other end. Sophie, our keeper, noticed that the batter was falling over slightly, so she mentioned to me about bowling one down legside. In the next over Sophie’s little plan worked; I saw the batter coming and bowled it down leg and Sophie took a great stumping.

Great work Sophie, you deserve all the credit for that wicket. It is the second time she has helped me out now with a stumping down legside. They were finally all out for 173, I finished up with four wickets for 28 but it was a great team effort with the bowling and fielding.

We were up against the ever reliable Nicky Myers (Dizz) who bowler seven overs for just five runs the day before. We lost an early wicket with the score on 23 when Beth trapped Ebony in front for 16, but from there we never looked back.

Lottie came in once again looking in very good touch and hit the ball to all areas of the ground to bring up her 50 in quick time. We managed to hit Dizz for 23 runs from her seven overs, and managed to knock of the runs in the 34th over and win by nine wickets. Lottie finished on 94 and I finished on 49.

We ended in second place behind the Rubies who had a 100 per cent record in this Super Fours and I was much happier playing against my old team after the Emeralds polished me off last time.

The next couple of weeks see us playing county cricket with the County Championship only a few weeks away now.