Lucy Higham admitted to a sense of unease as she visited Trent Bridge as an opposition player for the first time, but hailed the big-match atmosphere as she took three wickets to see Northern Superchargers to victory over Trent Rockets.

Higham, who has played her county cricket for Nottinghamshire since 2017 and represents The Blaze in the women’s elite domestic structure, took five wickets on her most recent appearance on the Trent Bridge turf in the early weeks of the season.

But the home favourite was wearing the colours of the visitors on this occasion.

“I like playing on this pitch, but I don’t like being in the away dressing room!” she laughed after the fixture.

“I felt like a bit of a traitor out there to be honest!

“But it’s a great stadium to play in and the crowd are fantastic – to have such a big crowd in at 11am on a Wednesday, what more could you ask for?

“Trent Rockets have a great team, so it was a really important win for us today.

“Any team that has Nat Sciver-Brunt in there is a really strong team, and they’ve got a great batting and bowling line-up.”

Higham dismissed her Blaze team-mate Sciver-Brunt as the Rockets’ chase began to falter in its closing stages, with the hosts ultimately falling short by nine runs.

But she remained adamant that she had not secured the upper hand over the England all-rounder.

“At that point, we knew we needed a wicket, so it was a case of being a bit brave,” she said.

“With Nat, if she hits it, you know it’s going for six, so I thought I’d just take the pace off, and if she got it she got it. It was a bit of a lucky wicket but I’ll take it!

“Normally when I bowl against Nat in the nets at Lady Bay, my measure of success is if I don’t get hit over the trees –rather than if I get a wicket or a dot ball.

“So wouldn’t say I’d got the bragging rights over her really.”

Bryony Smith top-scored with 70 from 44 deliveries for the Rockets as they appeared to have the upper hand in the chase – and the opener called on her side to generate positive momentum from their upcoming run of games.

“It’s tough to take after a decent bowling performance and getting off to such a good start with the bat,” she said.

“I didn’t get off to the best start in the competition personally, so it’s nice to get some runs today and score them in the way I want to score them.

“It’s felt like we haven’t played for ages – with the rain-off at Edgbaston, it’s been just over a week now – but we’ve got three games on the bounce now, and hopefully we can put in three strong performances.”

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