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| Venue: Ageas Bowl, Southampton Date: 25 August Time: 15:30 BST |
| Coverage: Live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website from 15:15 BST |
Alana King and Sarah Glenn are Trent Rockets’ ‘leg-spin sisters’, but the duo first met during the 2021 Big Bash League, bonding over cricket, coffee and their shared love of spin king Shane Warne.
Back then, King and Glenn practised together in a park – discussing their variations and how to improve their technique. Now they’re in the same team.
“We grabbed a couple of balls and bowled at each other. Now we can actually practise in the nets. I’m stoked that I’m playing with Glenny and I can have more of those conversations in person,” said Australia’s King, 26.
Glenn, the 22-year-old from Derby, echoed this: “We’ve got our certain variations now but obviously we’re continuing to grow because batters will get used to us and we need to have a Plan B so we’re continually working on that.
“I get more bounce because of my height and Kingy gets more revs on it coming from round the wicket. Leg-spin is such a unique bowling action and even as a group of leg-spinners we all bowl so differently so we’re just learning off one another.”
The pair have a relationship beyond the sport too, and off the pitch talk turns from cricket to coffee.
“We’re always going for coffee,” said King. “We’re quite similar in that we love talking about the game and how we bowl but outside of cricket neither of us are draining the other about leg-spin.
“We just have our general banter and we love spending time with each other.”
Trent Rockets have had a mixed 2022 season so far, with two wins out of four. They have just two games left to secure a place in the top three, with top of the table going straight into the final and second and third playing in an eliminator.
“We both want to do well but we also want to inspire young girls out there to play because we know leg-spin is quite a difficult skill and you don’t want to have that fear of failure. That’s one of my aims throughout this tournament while we’ve still got so much coverage,” Glenn said.
“What is special about this kind of tournament is the conversations you have with the fans after.
“We’re definitely attracting fans who have never watched cricket before or played it and hearing that is quite special. As a team we’ve always made it important to go and speak to people and have those conversations.
“I remember being a young girl who would go up and wait for the players to walk past and ask questions so we made a real conscious effort to do that and hopefully we can keep inspiring the next generation.”
It’s been quite the tournament for King, with the Ashes and Commonwealth Games winner taking a hat-trick against Manchester Originals.
“Personally, my favourite memory would have to be my first-ever hat-trick at Old Trafford. It was pretty special and I’m happy that I could do it for the Rockets,” said King.
Glenn agreed: “That’s probably mine as well. I was at extra cover and I just kept creeping in more and more because I was getting really excited. I was really excited for Kingy because the first game in The Hundred can always be a lot of pressure and you want to settle in and that is the perfect way to do it and it had an effect on the girls.
“We have all shared that celebration and hopefully the young girls in the crowd think, ‘I want to get a hat-trick now’. That’s what we’re trying to do is show off our skills to people and just motivate them to pick up the sport as well so that’s been one of my highlights as well.”
Through their artistry and innovation, Glenn and King hope to emulate the legacy of the late Warne, who remains a huge source of inspiration for them both.
“Growing up in Australia I got to watch him bowl on my TV all summer long. He’s a pretty big inspiration to me,” said King.
“I used to go on his ‘How to bowl leg-spin’ YouTube clips. I think his attitude towards the game as well, just how competitive he was, was quite inspiring,” said Glenn.
Trent Rockets team-mate Rashid Khan is another source of inspiration.
“He is such an innovator in his craft,” King added. “I’m glad he’s at the Rockets so hopefully we can squeeze a session in with him and pick his brain. I think he’s a phenomenal bowler in all three formats of the game.”
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