Issy Wong eager to put her run-up woes behind her

The Birmingham Phoenix fast bowler, 21, featured for the first time after eight months on the sidelines this weekend and experienced a bumpy ride, going for 12 runs with three front-foot no balls in her first over as Heather Knight’s team suffered a shock eight-wicket defeat at Chelmsford.

Wong was also dropped by Phoenix during The Hundred – where she conceded 62 runs and took just one wicket in the 30 balls she bowled – with her hopes of playing in today’s crunch East Midlands clash now hanging in the balance.

The Birmingham-based star was one of the poster girls of English cricket at the start of the summer but after enduring a difficult few weeks, believes she can bounce back and help Knight’s 50-over World Cup runners-up get back on track.

“It’s not been easy but it’s part and parcel and one of those things,” she said. “When things are going really well for you, you feel like you’re on top of the world and everything is going in your favour.

“So, if you’re going to enjoy it there, you have to take it with a pinch of salt when it’s not going your way.

“It’s been motivation to be back performing where I want to be. Because I’ve not been where I want to be this summer. That’s on me and I am also the only person who can change that, there’s no point me sitting around and sulking. I’ve just got to keep working hard and keep doing the right things on the daily and hope that the good things add up and hopefully we’ll be on the right track.”

Trailblazer Wong – the first player of Chinese descent to represent England – was flying earlier this year as she took the first hat-trick in the Women’s Premier League in India in March. And that led to her face adorning billboards up and down the country at the beginning of the summer ahead of England’s Women’s Ashes campaign.

But she played no part in the rip-roaring series despite being in the squad and after her string of run-up struggles, is now unsure whether she will feature in today’s series-deciding third T20 against Sri Lanka. Wong, speaking at the launch of Metro Bank and the ECB’s Together We Rise initiative, added: “It [her run-up] was really long, I just didn’t have any control over it.

“It felt like I just lost so much margin for error. When it was perfect, it was still going alright, but then the times where it wasn’t perfect, it was way off.

“And it kind of got to the stage where I was fed up of sometimes being good but often being bad and I wanted to do something about that.

“The nature of the game is that there’s never a good time to do that, so it was very much a case of ‘right, let’s do it now because otherwise I’m just going to be wasting my time for the next month trying to do it in October.’”

n Metro Bank have partnered with the ECB to improve confidence in women and girls through cricket and have pledged to treble the number of girls’ cricket teams by 2026. Understand more at www.metrobankonline.co.uk

n The Blaze fought off closest pursuers Central Sparks in an engrossing match at Edgbaston to record a three-wicket win and strengthen their position at the top of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy table.

The league leaders bowled Sparks out for 189 as only Bethan Ellis (53) and Katie George (50) passed 15 for the home side. A tight Blaze bowling display was led by Josie Groves (three for 39) as they exploited the turning wicket and some ill-judged shots.

The Blaze reply was then spectacularly launched by Lizelle Lee (40, 31). Spinners Georgia Davies (2-28) and Hannah Baker (2-37) caused a collapse from 73 for one to 91 for six, but Nat Sciver-Brunt showed all her experience and class in an unbeaten 66 to see Blaze home to 193 for seven from 45.1 overs.