Phoebe Graham blogs on what it was like playing in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final for Northern Diamonds and how it has inspired her to come back stronger in next summer's The Hundred...
What an incredible competition!
Hats off to the ECB for organising such a fabulous tournament. Despite losing the final, playing live on Sky Sports was a great way to finish what has been a wonderful season with the Diamonds.
I love a final, a big occasion, it's why you play the game. It's the extra fire in your belly that you can only get from sport.
We couldn't have been better prepared. We'd finished the group stages with a smashing win, our groundsmen had us training outside despite tropical hailstone storms and the atmosphere in camp was at an all-time high.
The night before the final, Dan [Head coach, Danielle Hazell] played a showreel of all our magic moments. We were pumped ahead of the game and walking into the final feeling a million dollars.
Lauren Winfield-Hill was released from the England bubble so we were led by experience and class. I was chuffed to have her back. The last time we graced a cricket pitch together was back in 2014 when we competed against one another at a BUCS university final.
The Vipers put on a good show and their openers were hard to crack. They reached 100 before our first breakthrough wicket. It was a cracking start from the Vipers, but we knew the character in our attack, so restricting them to 231 was no surprise. Georgia Adams batted well, hitting 80, until our very own magician Katie Levick got her caught at cow.
Lev is a magician and often gets the critical wickets. She's produced magic balls since we I've known her when we were 15. I often quote the magic in the field… 'Will she go back? Will she go forward? It's pure magic out here.'
Jenny Gunn on one occasion asked me at half time: 'PG do you have an old riff out there with Greaves', I said 'absolutely not, I was just appreciating Lev's magic show'.
It was nice to bowl in tandem with Lev and I was pleased with my performance with the ball. I had a few edges, mini chances, although would have loved to have picked up a couple. Being live on Sky meant it was the first time my speed has been clocked. I was happy to see my speeds reaching 68mph - it's got me hungry to work on my game over the winter.
It's a shame we weren't a stronger unit with the bat. We got off to a good start and Sterre Kalis batted well with her third consecutive 50.
We slipped to 110-7, a position we had been in before and won. Langers, Lev and I showed glimmers of hope, but it wasn't meant to be this year for the Diamonds and we ended up 38 runs short.
Credit to young Charlotte Taylor, who took a brilliant six wickets and caused our team a lot of problems. She's got an exciting future ahead. I loved her speech, but even more so, how she was greeted into the office on Monday morning.
So congratulations to the Vipers on a well-deserved win. All in all, it was a tremendous effort from the ECB to get the competition up and running.
I can only thank everyone behind the scenes and feel proud to be working for Sky who are continually supporting the game.
I hope young girls watching have been inspired and no longer just think, 'I want to play cricket' but 'I want to be a professional cricketer'. Because now, more than ever, it's possible.
And for me? I'm excited about my cricket career ahead.
First of all I'm looking forward to a winter's hard work. I'll have time to strengthen my 5ft11 levers, work on my bowling toolkit and clock some 70+ speeds. Then, come summer, I'll be back, ready to secure a gig for The Hundred competition.