KIA Super League Preview: Lancashire Thunder v Western Storm

THE MATCH

Western Storm will be looking to continue their good start to this year’s KIA Super League campaign when they travel to Emirates Old Trafford to take on Lancashire Thunder tomorrow (Tuesday).

Play is due to get underway at 2:30pm

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In addition to this a report on the day’s play along with quotes will be posted after the close.

HEAD TO HEAD

The teams have met on two occasions with Western Storm winning both.

The first meeting between the two sides was at the Cooper Associates County Ground in 2016. After winning the toss Lancashire elected to bat but were dismissed for just 83 in 18.3 overs. Stafanie Taylor was the pick of the bowlers, claiming four for 14 whilst Heather Knight took three for 11.

Western Storm reached the required total from 15.3 overs to win by four wickets.

In 2017 Storm Skipper Heather Knight once again elected to field at the Brightside Ground, Bristol. Two wickets for Freya Davies helped to ensure that Lancashire were restricted to a total of 122 for five. Amy Satterthwaite top scored for the Thunder with 44 from 41 balls.

Rachel Priest once again excelled for the Storm as she blasted her way to 52 from just 26 balls as Storm eased their way to victory by five wickets and a place in the semi-final.

TEAM NEWS

Head Coach, Trevor Griffin will pick the starting XI from the following squad:

Heather Knight, Anya Shrubsole, Fran Wilson, Stafanie Taylor, Smriti Mandhana, Rachel Priest, Sophie Luff, Freya Davies, Claire Nicholas, Lauren Parfitt, Danielle Gibson, Lissy McLeod, Amara Carr, Naomi Dattani and Rebecca Silk.

VIEWS FROM THE DRESSING ROOM

Head Coach Trevor Griffin is delighted by how the season has been going so far but he believes the Priest-Mandhana axis will only become more destructive as the tournament proceeds.

“Smriti has come in and shown why she’s one of the most exciting young players in the world at the moment,” he said. “Everyone knows what Rachel Priest can do and those two set us up nicely in the power-play.

“They keep it really simple and always go about their game in just the same way. Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s always exciting.

“They’ve done well up top so far in the tournament, but there is still more to come. It could get really interesting when Rachel fires for longer in the game!”

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

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