Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy Rewind: Windsor’s Career Best

With the 2022 season now firmly in the rear-view mirror, we're taking a look back at some of the performances that caught the eye throughout Southern Vipers' Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign.

With Vipers unavailable for selection after England had been down the phone, Emily Windsor was recalled from her rolling loan at Lightning to play in Southern Vipers’ second RHFT match against South East Stars at Hove.

The Portsmouth-born batter scored 27 for Lightning in a rain-affected defeat, but she was about to show the Vipers exactly why they shouldn’t drop her.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bowl first, a decision that proved a positive one after they had the Vipers 74-4 inside 20 overs.

Batting at six, Windsor joined all-rounder Georgia Elwiss with a lot of work to do to get the team to a defendable total.

Windsor started in her usual, cautious fashion, before she picked up her first boundary with an exquisite cover drive off Bryony Smith.

From thereon in, she quietly accumulated runs before working a ball on leg stump down to fine leg from Dani Gregory.

In the very same over, she capitalised on a drag down from the leg spinner, cutting it away through point for her third four.

Then she started to unleash her full repertoire of shots, as she danced down the track to Grace Gibbs, slapping the ball back past the bowler for another boundary.

A couple of overs later, she guided Gibbs through point for her fifth boundary, before she reached her half-century off 59 balls with a single off Eva Gray.

Windsor then cut away a drag down from Alice Capsey through backward of square on the off side before taking two boundaries off the next Eva Gray over, first with a textbook straight drive back down the ground, before another of her favourite cut shots.

Back to back boundaries off Smith in the 40^th over helped take the Vipers past 200, but Windsor kept pushing.

Two more consecutive boundaries off Alice Davidson-Richards took her closer to her maiden Vipers century, and a sweep off a slower ball from the England all-rounder saw Windsor into the nervous 90s for the first time.

Unfortunately, she was bowled the next ball, and fell short of what would’ve been a spectacular century.

She took just 20 balls to accelerate from 50 to 90, being dismissed after a 79-ball stay at the crease.

A century from Georgia Elwiss, along with a cameo of 40 from Freya Kemp propelled the Vipers to 306-9, before wickets were shared between all bowlers, with former Viper Paige Scholfield taking 3-29, as the home side sealed victory by a mammoth 133 runs.

Watch the best bits of Emily Windsor's innings by clicking the link below.

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