Alice Capsey: Epic Ashes simply the beginning of England’s thrilling journey
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o a lot has appeared to return so naturally to Alice Capsey since she first lit up The Hundred as a 16-year-old two summers in the past, that it’s nearly heartening to listen to that her freakish sporting expertise is but to translate fairly so seamlessly to the golf course.
“I’m at the stage where I actually hate it,” she laughs. “I’ve only recently started playing, so I’m not very good. But I’m determined I’m going to get better so I can play on tour with Heather [Knight] and Sophie [Ecclestone].”
The two-week break between the conclusion of an epic Women’s Ashes and the beginning of The Hundred has allowed time for just a few rounds, however Capsey says she is “still on edge” having performed a central half in what so almost grew to become one in all sport’s best comeback tales.
Trailing 6-0 within the multi-format collection, Knight’s group received 4 of the 5 remaining white-ball matches to return agonisingly near successful again the Ashes, an 8-8 draw sufficient for Australia, the holders and serial world champions, to retain.
“We almost felt a bit hard done by,” Capsey stated. “We won two out of the three series, we won more games than them but they’ve retained the Ashes.
“But I think this is the start of a really exciting journey for us. I look back and go: ‘Wow, that was an amazing series to be part of’. As my first Ashes series, I couldn’t have expected anything more.”
Capsey’s 46 off simply 23 balls at Lord’s gave England a 2-1 collection victory within the T20 leg, their first in any format in opposition to Australia in six years, and marked a well timed return to type for {the teenager}, who had made simply 17 runs in 5 T20 innings.
Near-miss: Alice Capsey was a part of an England group that nearly pulled off an epic Ashes comeback
/ PAThat carried into the ODI collection when, promoted to No3, Capsey made one other swaggering 40 at Bristol to arrange the file run chase that, on the time, levelled the Ashes at 6-6.
“Sometimes I’ll come off, sometimes I won’t,” she provides. “That’s what I need to learn, to take better options. I’ve still got so much learning and developing to do in my game that I am going to go through those lean spells. The key is not to doubt my ability.”
For all of the speak of Capsey’s precocious emergence, the earlier six months had been a problem. The 18-year-old suffered a damaged collarbone whereas fielding on the tour of the West Indies simply earlier than Christmas after which a again downside that dominated her out for a month at the beginning of the home season.
“My run-up to the Ashes wasn’t ideal and that probably did have an impact on where I was mentally,” she says. “I probably wasn’t in my most confident state.
This is the start of a really exciting journey for England… as my first Ashes series, I couldn’t have expected anything more
“I had a net the day before [the Lord’s game] for about an hour, just working on my plans a bit more and that’s where the growing had to be done, knowing when to take the options and if the risk is too high. I think in that innings I got it spot on.”
The all-rounder is again on the venue she has made her playground on Wednesday afternoon as Oval Invincibles start their Hundred campaign against London Spirit.
“I do not actually know what it’s about Lord’s,” says Capsey, whose breakout half-century in The Hundred in 2021 got here on the identical floor. “I actually find batting out there quite hard but it seems to work, something seems to click. I love playing in the big games and the big moments.”
With Invincibles focusing on a 3rd successive girls’s title, there might be loads of these to return.