Surrey will cross the river and travel to Mill Hill School to face Kent on the Finals Day of 2023 Vitality Women’s County T20 on Saturday. The Three Feathers’ semi-final will begin in the afternoon at 1:30 pm, with the final scheduled at 4:30 pm on the same day.
An optimistic captain Amy Gordon says that the mood in the Surrey camp is really positive and her team is “all ready to go out there and give our best shot” when it matters the most.
Surrey finished third in the County T20 Group 6 table, on ten points from six games, having lost and won twice, while their opening two games against Kent in late April were abandoned due to rain. Gordon, however, doesn’t want to read too much into where Surrey ended in the table, insisting it is more significant where they go from now on.
Kent, who finished above the Three Feathers with 12 points and stayed unbeaten throughout the group stage, will pose a “strong challenge” in the semi-finals, but Gordon’s team are also viewing the fixture as an opportunity. “We’re hungry for it, and so it’d be good to go against another hungry team,” says the 21-year-old all-rounder.
Surrey’s two victories in the campaign came against Oxfordshire at Great and Little Tew CC on May 1. Comprehensively defeating the hosts by eight wickets in the first game, spearheaded by Claudie Cooper and Priya Khatkar’s three-for apiece and Amy Gordon’s half-century. Surrey then doubled up on Oxfordshire, comfortably winning the second game as well by 29 runs, thanks to a disciplined bowling performance.
Khatkar, a slow-left arm who previously played in Haryana, India, is enjoying a brilliant start to her career in the Three Feathers. Leading the bowling charts in the group stage, the 24-year-old picked up nine wickets from three outings, while going at an unbelievable economy rate of 3.5.
“Priya has been fantastic”, says Gordon, for whom she is nothing short of a captain’s dream. “Her consistency is unmatched… As a captain, it’s very easy to go to Priya and be like ‘What do you want’, and she’ll tell me.”
Gordon believes spinners are “imperative” for a women’s team to find success and adds “if the pitch is playing how I’d expect to in this part of the season, I’d back my spinners to bowl 12 overs [out of 20] easily.” Anjali Ketan and Claudie Cooper, both of whom have also impressed this season with Cooper even going to debut for the South East Stars, will be keen to make their mark on Saturday.
From a batting perspective, the responsibility of putting runs on the board will fall on the likes of Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones, Robyn Bentley, Thea Brookes, Izzy Berry, and Hannah Burridge as well as on Gordon herself, who finished as the second-highest run scorer in the group stage. Vastly-experienced Brookes, who joined Surrey this season, has “a lot of knowledge” and adds great value to Gordon’s young Surrey side, besides her runs as well.
Blinkhorn-Jones, who smashed a wonderful century against Middlesex in the London Championship as well as for the South East Stars in a warm-up match against The Blaze, is a core batter for Surrey. “After her first Surrey century, she gained that confidence,” says her captain. “She provides a lot to the team… I’m looking forward to what she can offer on Finals Day.”
In the final round of fixtures of the group stage, Surrey had faced disappointment, losing both their matches at Hornsey Cricket Club against their London rivals Middlesex. The skipper, however, remains unfazed by those defeats. Looking forward and keeping faith in her team, she promises “we will give everything and go for the win”.
Surrey’s 12-player squad for the Finals Day is as follows:
