Essex Women return to midweek action with a trip to Birmingham to face Warwickshire Bears Women at EdgBLASTon.
Stephen Parry's group will be looking to bounce back into winning ways on Wednesday when they face Warwickshire Bears in round eight of the Women's Vitality T20 Blast.
On Sunday, Essex suffered an eight wicket defeat to The Blaze in the previous round at Chelmsford as the visitors returned to the top of the Vitality Blast table.
After being put into bat, Essex slipped to 136 for nine against disciplined spin bowling. Liberty Heap continued her fine form with a fluent 46 from 31, matching her career-best T20 score, while Anneke Bosch added 21 and debutant Amelie Bishop contributed 20. Heap and Bosch briefly rebuilt after an early collapse before Georgia Elwiss removed Bosch, and Heap fell just short of a maiden T20 half-century. The innings lost momentum late as The Blaze claimed two wickets in the final over.
Defending 137, Essex’s task became tougher after early fielding errors allowed Tammy Beaumont and Marie Kelly to make a brisk start. Esmae MacGregor dismissed Beaumont with an excellent yorker, but an unbroken stand of 95 between Kelly (55*) and Charli Knott (54*) guided The Blaze home with 4.1 overs to spare.
Stephen Parry has named a 14-player squad for the visit to Birmingham, which includes new signing Michaela Kirk.
Essex Women's Captain Grace Scrivens, Jodi Grewcock and Sophia Smale are all unavailable due to their selection with England Women A. Therefore, Eva Gray will continue to captain the team.
Flo Miller and Amara Carr have both sustained hand injuries and are currently undertaking rehabilitation.
Abtaha Maqsood is unavailable due to suffering a hand fracture whilst on international duty with Scotland. Unfortunately, this has ruled Abtaha out of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup and an update on her return will be released in due course.
After sustaining a serious leg injury against Lancashire Thunder, Cordelia Griffith is undertaking rehab and will be unfortunately be unavailable for the remainder of the season.
Captain: Georgia Davis
Overseas: Georgia Redmayne (Australia)
2025 finish: Finalists
2025 leading run-scorer: Davina Perrin (385)
2025 leading wicket-taker: Millie Taylor (22)
Winter moves: Australia wicketkeeper/batter Georgia Redmayne has been signed and will bring valuable experience and nous to a squad which is highly talented but still relatively young and inexperienced.
The big question: Can Warwickshire’s squad cope with injuries to key personnel which will affect them in the group stage? Katie George (abductor) and Davina Perrin (hamstring), two integral members of the first-choice top order, will miss at least the early group games. With Issy Wong and Em Arlott away on England duty, the Bears’ squad depth will be tested.
Wildcard watch: Meg Austin – an aggressive top-order batter who scores quickly with a range of strokes, the 21-year-old from Staffordshire is a ‘proper’ batter who can also improvise. Quick between the wickets, she is capable of delivering exciting, match-turning innings.
Final thought: The Bears did brilliantly to finish as runners-up in the Blast last year. They finished third in the group stage to reach Finals Day at which they beat much-fancied Blaze in the semi before losing to Surrey in the final. To have done all that has raised expectations among their supporters this time round, Can the Bears rise to the challenge of higher expectations…as successful teams must do?
Warwickshire Bears squad: click here.
A coruscating second wicket-partnership of 119 in just 10 overs between Lissy MacLeod and Cordelia Griffith saw Essex swat aside Warwickshire at Chelmsford to get their Vitality Blast campaign off to the best possible start with a statement win in the sunshine, cruising to their victory target of 165 in just 14.2 overs.
Essex won the toss and put Warwickshire in to bat but it was only Abbie Freeborn who made any real impact, opening up and carrying her bat for 86 off 56 balls. She was initially ably supported by Georgia Redmayne, who made a hard-working 36, but from 80 for 1 in the tenth over, the innings fell away alarmingly, no other batter scoring more than Millie Taylor’s 10, with Essex’s bowlers turning the screw in the second half.
Eva Gray and Jodi Grewcock both picked up two wickets and at the halfway mark, neither side would have quite known who was on top. But any doubts about that were dispelled when Essex skipper Grace Scrivens and MacLeod put on 39 in 3.2 overs to put themselves well ahead of the game and then Griffith came in to play a sublime innings of 68 in 37 balls, combining with Macleod, who made 59 in 38, to ensure that Essex were home and dry long before the end.
Dropped catches and untidy fielding did not help Warwickshire’s cause but the skill and power of the two batters was on display throughout and it was something of a surprise when they fell in successive balls with just seven runs needed. Jo Gardner finished things off with a swept boundary with 5.4 over remaining, and the team who finished second-last in 2025 came off the field with broad smiles on their faces and the points in the bag.
PREVIOUS LINEUPS
Essex Women: Grace Scrivens (C), Cordelia Griffith, Lissy Macleod, Jodi Grewcock, Flo Miller, Sophia Smale, Jo Gardner, Amara Carr (WK), Sophie Munro, Eva Gray, Esmae MacGregor.
Warwickshire Bears Women: Meg Austin, Abigail Freeborn, Georgia Redmayne, Charis Pavely, Chloe Brewer, Natasha Wraith (WK), Mary Taylor, Alexa Stonehouse, Millie Taylor, Georgia Davis (C), Phoebe Brett.
Click here for the tournament preview.
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