Women’s Rapid Gwen Davies enjoyed a winning return to the side having missed over a month through injury, notching 41 runs in Worcestershire’s six-wicket Vitality Blast T20 victory over Sussex Sharks.
Returning to action in front of a home crowd at New Road, Ed Wilson’s side were eyeing a second successive Blast victory to bolster hopes of qualification in the competition.
Despite experiencing a County Cup exit between the two Blast fixtures, positives were taken from last week’s test against Tier One Surrey, ensuring the Rapids came into their clash with Sussex in high spirits.
This positivity culminated in a sublime Sunday showing, something that pleased Rapids batter Gwen Davies greatly.
“It feels phenomenal.
“I felt like we let the crowd down a little bit last time we were here for the Northants double header, so it’s really pleasing to put in a performance like that for them today and make sure they had something to come and watch.
“Watching the way Bry, Maddie and Beechy went about it at Bromsgrove definitely filled us with confidence.
“Then picking up on the experience of Surrey last weekend, our girls really observed how they went about it and the fact they had no fear at all.
“It’s definitely something we’ve been talking about, something we’ve been preparing to do in training and it’s really pleasing that it came off today.”
Kicking off her 2026 campaign with a half century away at Sussex in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, Worcestershire’s left-handed batter has since experienced injury frustration, suffering a torn ankle ligament which has forced her to miss over a month’s action.
Returning to the side against Sussex, the former Tier One campaigner wasted no time in getting back to her best, striking a devastating 41 from 21 deliveries, including a fruitful partnership with youngster Madison Windeatt, in what proved to be a pivotal part of Worcestershire’s success.
“I feel like I’ve sort of made up for lost time.
“Sitting out for four weeks has been a bit painful, so I thought let’s come out and have a bit of fun today.
“It was really enjoyable batting with Maddie.
“As a batting group it’s really pleasing that we’ve been brave enough to go after it and it’s come off.
“Hopefully we can carry this on now and put another good performance in next week against Glamorgan and then see what happens up until finals day.”
