You can’t rush a New York Cheesecake – not when you are baking it, anyway! (When you are eating it – yes, rush away!) But in the baking, it needs to cook low and slow.
In that sense, Sterre Kalis’s match-winning half-century for Yorkshire in their One Day Cup semi-final showdown against Middlesex was the perfect New York Cheesecake – cooked low, and cooked slow.
As Kalis faced her first ball from Saskia Horley at the start of the 11th over, Yorkshire were in just a wee bit of trouble, having lost two set batters – Lauren Winfield-Hill (for 16) and Erin Thomas (for 38) – within the space of 4 balls. That left the visitors 55-3, with both batters at the crease on nought.
The situation wasn’t desperate by any means – chasing a lowish 194, Yorkshire had time on their side. But given that the head-t0-head between the teams this season read “Middlesex 2 – Yorkshire 0”, including a 10-wicket drubbing in the final of the Tier 2 Blast, the honorary Yorkie from Den Haag in the Netherlands must have been wondering if history was about to deliver it’s infamous second encore, this time as farce?
So she dug in.
You could almost hear her telling herself – low and slow; low and slow – as she and Maddie Ward added just 15 runs in 9 overs between the 10th and 19th. A 4 driven down the ground by Ward at the start of the 19th over was the first boundary since the 8th over.
Even with 8 off the 19th over, the entire early middle phase produced just 23 runs for Yorkshire – it was soporific stuff, and for a brief period the game turned against them. Though it wasn’t really relevant, with no rain forecast, they fell behind on DLS, and also on the WinHer Win Predictor.
Nonetheless, Kalis didn’t panic – despite facing dot after dot (45 of ’em in all!) of defensive shots back to the bowler, or drives to fielders on the ring; and despite going at a Strike Rate of well under 50, she kept her cool, and lowly… slowly… the small crowd at Radlett began to wake up and smell the cheesecake.
Two-and-a-half an over, became three-and-a-half an over, helped by some woeful fielding and a succession of dropped catches from Middlesex. But at the point Ward was dismissed (Artemis Downer finally holding on to a skier at cow corner) Kalis was still only on 29 off 57 balls, at a Strike Rate of just 51.
The entrance of Ami Campbell did then flick a switch – the shots got bigger and so did the run rate. Kalis’s next 36 runs were scored from just 22 balls – 3x the Strike Rate she’d been going before – to get Yorkshire home with more than 10 overs to spare, with Campbell 34* at the other end. A New York cheesecake, perfectly baked.
Some credit must also go to Yorkshire’s bowlers – particularly Beth Langston, who bowled 10 in a row up-top, taking 2-38 and deserving some of the credit for the wickets that fell at the other end too. By the end of the 12th over, Middlesex had lost Issy Routledge and Artemis Downer, both edging pacy deliveries from Langston to Lauren Winfield-Hill behind the sticks; as well as Finty Trussler and Pippa Sproul. Those 4 between them have scored nearly 60% of Middlesex’s runs in the One Day Cup this season, so losing all for barely a peppercorn meant it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the home side.
Captain Saskia Horley fought back with 83 off 100 balls to get Middlesex back into the mix, assisted by an unbeaten 48 from Gaya Gole, and if the Middlesex tail had been able to wag just a little more it might have made a big difference. Chasing something more like 220 or 230 wouldn’t have allowed Kalis quite the luxury to slow-bake her innings the way she did.
It was a disappointing end to the season for Middlesex, but given the way the dice were loaded against them as basically an amateur side playing Yorkshire’s professionals, they should be immensely proud to have achieved a first-placed finish in the table, in addition to their Blast win.
And as he lined up commiseration beers for his side, Middlesex’s Director of Cricket Alan Coleman praised them for what he described as an “unbelievable season” in which the Tier 2 side have won 18 of their matches 21 matches:
“The pride that they can take in the cricket they’ve played is immense. As a club, we couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve achieved.”
For Yorkshire, they march on to next weekend’s final, where they face Glamorgan, with nothing less than a win the minimum expectation.
