Watch England Women's T20 series against West Indies Women on Sky Sports Cricket and our YouTube channel
Friday 18 September 2020 19:50, UK
In her latest Sky Sports column, England batter Danni Wyatt blogs on fun and games in the Derby bubble, Southern Vipers' storming form, the West Indies T20s on Sky Sports YouTube plus an upcoming competition for Women's Cricket month...
Not long to go!
As you've probably guessed, I'm climbing the walls and counting the days until I get to play for England again and I'll cherish every moment of our series against West Indies.
We all knew before lockdown how lucky we are to play for our country but I didn't realise just how much I'd miss it and I'm really going to enjoy my time out in the middle.
'Bubble life' here in Derby is really good and the entertainment room is a fun way to pass the time before Monday's first T20 match in the series.
As well as table tennis, pool and air hockey we've got a neat basketball game - like the ones you see in the arcades - and there's stiff competition to see who can score the most points in 30 seconds.
Freya Davies currently tops the leaderboard, racking up the two and three-pointers to break the 70-point barrier and overtake Mady Villiers, who led for a while.
Darts is also popular - we've been playing 'around the board' a lot - but although I've been trying to remember the tips Phil Taylor gave to me years ago (he's a friend of my Dad's), they're not really working!
So every day I've been rounding everyone up to play cards, mainly Kings, which seems to be a bit about tactics but mainly all about luck! Anya Shrubsole is good at it but Heather Knight is undoubtedly the queen of cards.
She's very clever, is our Heather, but she did let Kate Cross do her hair last night. Let's just say I'm not next in line!
We're all missing Georgia Elwiss, who has had to leave us because of her back injury, and not only because she was giving Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver a run for their money in the 'coffee shop' stakes. As regular readers of this blog know I like my coffee very sweet and not too strong - and theirs has been outstanding.
The real buzz, though, comes from the cricket; it's been hard waiting all summer to play on the international stage and I'm determined to train well and give myself the best chance to perform.
I think I might have overdone it a couple of weeks back at the start of our Loughborough camp, though. We began with a 2km time trial and I pushed myself so hard that I was really ill and came down with a cold.
I then had a COVID-19 test and wasn't allowed out of my room for days, meaning I missed one of the intra-squad games, but I'm pleased to say that I'm nearly 100 per cent now. The test was, thankfully, negative and I can safely say that quarantine life is definitely not for me!
In addition to the squad games we played, we were released to go and play two matches for our teams in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, which was really enjoyable.
Southern Vipers are already through to the final, which is live on Sky Sports on Sunday September 27. It's a great achievement for our skipper Georgia Adams - who has been in the big runs - and our coach Charlotte Edwards, who is very passionate.
I managed to score a couple of fifties and feel in good nick; I've reached double figures in every innings I've had so far and hopefully I can build on that form in this series.
As a squad, we've been talking about our future goals and the prospect of playing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the same year as the 20-over and 50-over World Cups.
There are things we need to work on before then off the back of our performances in the World Cup last year but safe to say that winning the gold medal would be an amazing achievement.
First, though, we can't wait to get out onto the park on Monday and hopefully the weather stays nice because it's quite cold as soon as the sun goes in!
I tweeted 'Derbados' on Thursday - to be fair it was really hot - but as soon as clouds arrive it is freezing and we're due to play four of the five T20s under lights. I've got my jumpers ready and hopefully we've got some hand-warmers!
More than ever at this time people are at home on their laptops and I'm no different - I always used to be on YouTube looking at music videos.
This is a great chance for us to show off our skills because a lot of people will be watching; our job is to inspire the next generation so if we can get young boys and girls watching us on YouTube, it has to be a great idea.
The ECB is also celebrating #WomensCricketMonth this month, which is great. I've seen loads of clubs have been doing specific activity for women's cricket and I love seeing that.
I think there's a competition coming soon on Twitter which is supposed to encourage even more women and girls to get involved or show that cricket can be for them, so watch this space!
• Monday, September 21 - 1st Vitality IT20, 5.30pm
• Wednesday, September 23 - 2nd Vitality IT20, 5.30pm
• Saturday, September 26 - 3rd Vitality IT20, 12.30pm
• Monday, September 28 - 4th Vitality IT20, 5.30pm
• Wednesday, September 30 - 5th Vitality IT20, 5.30pm
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