Greenway relishes Canterbury clash

5 August 2008 | By Dave Clark

Greenway is keen to represent England at Canterbury © Getty Images

England women's batsman Lydia Greenway admits that representing her country at Canterbury tomorrow in the first one-day international will be a special occasion.

Kent left-hander Greenway has established herself at number five in England’s middle order since her 2003 debut and is looking to play a key role in the upcoming series against South Africa and India ahead of the World Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009.

And she is excited about the prospect of making her first appearance at the ground where she watched cricket as a youngster, when South Africa provide the opposition in the first of five ODIs.

She told ecb.co.uk: “It will be really good, a good experience.

“I’ve obviously been down there while I’ve been growing up to watch games and stuff so being able to play there will be good.

“Hopefully it will be in front of a few friends as well so I’m looking forward to it.”

The 23-year-old admits confidence is high in the England camp after series wins against New Zealand and West Indies, as well as their Ashes triumph n Australia earlier in the year.

But Greenway - widely acknowledged as one of the best fielders in the world - acknowledges that South Africa and India are capable of causing problems for Charlotte Edwards’ side.

“They are both teams that we haven’t played recently, so all we’re going to do is try and concentrate on what we’ve been doing recently,” Greenway added.

“In Australia and New Zealand we performed really well and we just want to keep on improving on that and then take each game as it comes really.

“I think South Africa have changed quite a bit from when we last played them and India we haven’t played them for a while.

Greenway has helped England to Ashes success and now wants to add the World Cup to her CV

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“We’re just going to concentrate on us and then go from there.

“We don’t know South Africa that well. But they’ve got Crizelda Brits, their captain, who played a season with us at club level for Hayes and she’s a really good player.”

Greenway added: “She’s probably one of their danger players, along with Alicia Smith, who is a really good bowler.

“They are two players that come to mind for me but I don’t know too much about the rest of them.

"With the Indians, it’s their spinners. They have got quality spinners and probably one of the best seamers in Jhulan Goswami, so we’re going to know what to expect and we have to think about how we are going to play them."

Greenway has enjoyed plenty of success both domestically and at international level, but the Ashes celebrations were clearly a career highlight.

“Being able to be a part of that and all the things that came with it were great,” she continued.

“Obviously we all play because we want to win and anything else that we get on top of that is a bonus.

“Things like that make you realise everything you do worthwhile. It’s really good fun."

With two World Cups to aim for next year, including the Twenty20 final at Lord’s, Greenway echoed captain Edwards’ earlier assertion that the upcoming series need to be used as preparation.

“Obviously our goal is to win the World Cup and that’s what these series against South Africa and India are leading towards,” she said.

“We just want to make sure that we’re peaking at the right time and playing consistently.

“I think to win a World Cup we recognise that it’s consistency that’s key so we don’t want to have our best performance in the quarter-finals, get in the semi-final and then not perform as well.

“We want to make sure we perform consistently well to make sure we win all the games that we play.

“For me, playing South Africa and India will just be about making sure we are aiming to perform and win more games than not.”

Domestically, Greenway was part of the Kent side that narrowly missed out on a third consecutive title last week after rain washed out their final match against Sussex, handing the title to their rivals.

“It was really disappointing. It’s always disappointing to lose and there is quite a big rivalry between us and Sussex and it was a shame that it was because of the rain,” Greenway said.

“It gives the girls in the Kent team - especially the young ones - it gave them a taste of how much it means to win the county championship.

“It gives us another challenge next year to beat Sussex and to beat all the teams.”

Greenway, who as well as representing England celebrates her 24th birthday tomorrow, insists that she has even more to bring to the side with the bat.

“I just want to perform consistently,” she added. “I think coming in in the middle order, I want to be a bit more dangerous and help take games away from teams or get us out of trouble.

“I need to adapt to the role really, depending on the situation that we’re in.

“I want to play within my own ability and know my game and apply that to every game we play.”