Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. The dream team. Captain Lauren Winfield-Hill celebrates victory against The Blaze with coach Richard Pyrah.
Jess Jonassen was the star of Yorkshire’s show today with 67 and four wickets, but the Australian all-rounder reserved praise for other contributors as The Blaze were beaten at Headingley in a landmark Metro Bank One-Day Cup clash.
Yorkshire beat last season’s semi-finalists – a side who opened this year’s account with a win over defending champions Lancashire – by 70 runs defending 281.
Jonassen was one of three half-centurions in Yorkshire’s 280-9; captain Lauren Winfield-Hill with 90 and Sterre Kalis 61 the others.
The left-arm spinner then returned 4-18 from seven overs alongside Claudie Cooper’s three wickets. She also pointed to a five-over spell of 0-25 from the seam of Ines Blackwell as key in helping to keep a lid on the visiting chase which was well placed thanks to half-centuries from Marie Kelly and Kathryn Bryce.
At its best, The Blaze were 126-1, only to crumble to 162-8 and later 210 all out.
Jonassen said: “We’re very pleased. It’s always nice to get the monkey off the back, so to speak, but we were kind of building really nicely towards this moment.
“We came away with the points and put a more complete performance, I guess.”
On her own innings, she said: “I was a little bit tentative early, but it was nice to bat with Lauren. She just reminded me just to hit the ball. And, as soon as I did that, I felt a bit more free flowing. The way Sterre then played was beautiful and gave us some great momentum heading into the bowling innings.
“To get someone of Tammy Beaumont’s class out in that first over, I think that was really crucial for us. She has the ability to score so freely when she spends some time at the crease.
“To be fair, Kathryn and Marie then built a really good partnership and punished us when we missed.
“And all it took was a young 16-year-old for us in Ines Blackwell to really step up and just show how it’s done – just being really disciplined, really simple plans and executing those plans in partnership with Beth Langston down the other end.”
Yorkshire won last year’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup Tier 2 title, they reached the final of the Vitality Blast and beat Tier 1 Essex en-route to reaching the quarter-final of the Vitality County T20 Cup.
They then ran Somerset and Surrey close in their opening Tier 1 games last Saturday at Taunton and on Wednesday at the Oval, only narrowly losing.
Now, though, this victory shows that things are developing nicely for coach Rich Pyrah and his players.
Jonassen added: “It should give everyone a whole heap of confidence.
“We know in these first two games we had underperformed. So to put a more complete performance together here and not only challenge but defeat a really quality side is pleasing.
“Knowing there’s still areas for improvement is really exciting.
“We’re definitely going to savour this first victory, and I think we’ve got a little bit of a break now until our next game (Lancashire away next Saturday).
“So we’ll be able to enjoy it.”