In a new series for this year's Vitality Blast, an expert eye will provide a deep dive into each of The Blaze and Notts Outlaws' Trent Bridge opponents.

As Trent Bridge hosts its final double-header of this season's Vitality Blast, a detailed look at Surrey Women is provided by commentator and freelance cricket journalist Cameron Ponsonby.

Secure your seats to Friday’s double-header on 11 July here...

What have you made of what’s objectively been a very strong 2025 Vitality Blast campaign so far?

Surrey have really been the juggernaut of the competition so far, to an extent. When England aren’t playing, they have an entire top six made up of international players.

The likes of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Bryony Smith, Paige Scholfield, Grace Harris, Alice Davidson-Richards… Alice Capsey has impressed too. They have been, for the most part, unstoppable - apart from when The Blaze were in town at the Oval!

Until that point, it really didn’t look like anyone was going to beat them. They had a close match against Lancashire Thunder, which was rain-affected, but aside from that, they’ve cruised past everyone.

They tied against Essex recently, which was also a shortened match, but that wasn’t too much of a shock result in that it was quite a new-look Surrey.

Now that England and England A are both playing at the same time, they’re actually a completely different team and so The Blaze might fancy it!

Wyatt-Hodge is leading the way with the bat while Harris and Ryana MacDonald-Gay tie for the most wickets, but who else will be key for Surrey?

One of the big boosts this season for Surrey’s Vitality Blast season, certainly in comparison to their Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign, has been the fact that the seam attack has really stepped up, and a big part of that was Tash Farrant coming back into the side.

She’s bolstered that overall bowling attack in a way that it previously felt a bit ‘samey’ in the early stages. MacDonald-Gay and Phoebe Franklin are very good bowlers in their own right, but both are right-arm seamers and have similar pace and style.

Farrant bowls left-arm and at different stages of the innings too; she can swing the ball back into the right-hander with the new ball, and then once you’re out of the powerplay, she will come back to bowl left-arm over the wicket to change it up.

Similarly, you then have the variation in the form of Tilly Corteen-Coleman bowling really tall left-arm off-spin, and you can contrast that with Dani Gregory and Kalea Moore, who are a leg-spinner and another, slightly different off-spinner, respectively.

It feels as though they have all bases covered, and that allows them to mix and match and put together a very varied bowling attack.

Who are the young up-and-comers worth keeping an eye on?

In terms of Academy products, Emily Burke just made her debut against Essex, but if there’s a player to watch who isn’t yet a recognisable name, I’ll go for Alice Monaghan.

She’s just come back from injury, but she’s so important and Surrey love her. She didn’t bowl against Essex, but she batted at number three, and that gives you the impression that they think she can do everything.

She joined from Southern Vipers last year, and she floats in the batting order; she was a kind of bowling all-rounder, but now, especially in the One Day Cup, if they want some quick runs, they’ll bump her up to the middle order ahead of Scholfield and Davidson-Richards.

She definitely comes across as a really talented cricketer, and I think this is the year where she breaks through. Surrey have been bigging her up a lot, and I think she can play a big role.

Based on what you’ve seen so far, do you agree that the target for Surrey has to now be to win the competition?

Yes, definitely. They obviously lost the Vitality County Cup final against Lancashire Thunder, but they never really had their full-strength side.

That wasn’t even in the context of waiting for the England players to come back, it was more Farrant coming back, Monaghan being injured, and so the full depth of the squad hadn’t been available.

Now it is, and with the fact that Finals Day is at the Oval too, I think that anything less than winning would be considered a disappointment. That’s not to say that winning wouldn’t be euphoric and a massive achievement.

It’s just that they’ve played so well up to this point, and were runners-up in the County Cup earlier this year, it has to be the target to go and win it.

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