PLAYER DIARY: Fi Morris on historic 2025 season double for Lancashire Women
The last thing we said in the dressing room after winning that final against Hampshire was, ‘This is just the start, let’s not get complacent’.
We know that teams will be coming for us now, having won the double, but we want to do it again next year. Why can’t we go and win the treble?
I actually think the fact that we’ve been able to win the last few games without Emma Lamb, who’s had an unbelievable season - Eve Jones is injured, Tara Norris is injured - it shows the place we’re in as a squad.
We’ve come out and still performed very well.
Everyone can contribute, and that's how you have longevity as a team.
Look, we’d love Lamby to have the same season next year that she’s had this. It would be an incredible feat if she did. But, if not, I have absolutely no doubt that someone else will step up.
First things first, though, we want to enjoy what we’ve done this year.
Winning the Vitality County T20 Cup and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup is an amazing feeling, and we certainly gave celebrating a good crack last Sunday!
The innings that Gaby Lewis played to get us over the line against Hampshire (141 not out opening chasing 289) was probably one of the best innings I've ever seen.
For someone coming in as an overseas player, she not only had to deal with the pressure of a final and chasing what was a good score but also the pressure of having to replace Katie Mack and Alana King. That’s an incredible amount to fall on a young person’s shoulders. But she more than lived up to expectations.
It was brilliant to watch, and I’m absolutely delighted for her.
Gaby’s a great girl, and she likes a laugh. But she’s incredibly serious about her cricket.
She’s started captaining Ireland this year at such a young age - 24-years-old - and that’s something she’s very proud of. There’s no doubt she has a wonderful career ahead of her.
When we came in at the midway point of the final, we were pretty pleased to be chasing 289. We spoke about it being around a par score.
It was a really, really good wicket, a fast outfield, and we know the strength they've got in their batting line-up. We just felt like we never let them get away.
They got off to a good start through Maia Bouchier, but we picked up wickets at crucial times.
We speak about poking the bear. If we keep poking teams, eventually they’ll crumble. We did that very well in both the final and the semi-final against The Blaze.
It’s been a tricky season with the bat for me.
I know that I need to be better, and I’ll be working really hard through the winter to make sure that’s the case.
But I’ve been really pleased with how I’ve bowled in the last few weeks, and I was absolutely delighted to be able to contribute at a crucial moment in that semi-final, taking a wicket that did feel like it turned the game on its head (Georgia Elwiss, Blaze 187-4 in the 42nd over chasing 242).
You’d still have to say that Grace Potts won us that game. We were still on the back foot going into that last over with Kathryn Bryce not out and them needing nine. But what an over.
We came back after the Hundred at the start of September in a pretty good position in the table but lost our first game of the last block to Somerset at Emirates Old Trafford.
It was a tricky one.
Most of the girls had been away playing in the Hundred, obviously a short-format competition, and there wasn’t a big turnaround to re-adapt to 50-overs.
We certainly didn’t hit the ground running, and it put pressure on us going into the last three games.
We knew we had to get a couple of wins to make it to the semi-finals with the table being so tight, and luckily we managed to get them.
The Surrey win at Beckenham was a big one for us. They were in the mix, they’re a strong side, and we had a few injuries.
But the likes of Hannah Jones and Phoebe Graham came in, stepped up and performed having not been in the side all summer.
That’s what I mean when I say we have so many people who have put their hands up to contribute at different times. It’s so exciting for us moving forwards.
Looking back on the two trophies we’ve won this year, the T20 County Cup one was incredible given it was our first trophy as a group. They often say that your first is the sweetest.
But the 50-over competition is the one everyone wants to win, because it’s such a difficult one to play in.
You've not only got to have a lot of longevity in terms of winning a lot of games throughout the season. But you've also then got two knockout games.
We're unbeaten in knockout games this year, which shows we've got so much resilience and character and that we can perform under pressure.
As I said earlier, we really enjoyed the night after Hampshire.
Because the professional women’s game is so competitive now, it’s not often you get these big wins. So when you do, you absolutely have to celebrate them.
Everyone's worked so hard, not just this year but in the last five or six years at Lancashire and Thunder before.
To look at where Lancashire has come from, to look at where we are now, it was sort of a celebration of the last five or six years' hard work from Paul Shaw at the beginning as coach to now Chris Read taking over. They both deserve a huge amount of credit.
