Player Profile

Off-spinner Olivia Bell - Liv if you want - is having quite the introduction to senior cricket, impressing for both Thunder and for Scotland in 2023.

Bell, 20-years-old, had a stunning breakthrough campaign for Thunder, claiming 25 wickets in only eight matches in both the Charlotte Edwards Cup and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

That haul included a trio of four-wicket hauls; two in the RHFT 50-over competition and one in the CE Cup T20 campaign as Thunder reached Finals Day.

Having debuted for Scotland’s senior team in 2022, playing once, she added five more appearances to her tally the following year and has now taken six wickets for her country.

Bell’s form for Thunder earned her the club’s Young Player of the Year award, and she will clearly be confident of building on that start when rolls around 2024.

Born in Stockport, Bell came through the Cheshire age-groups, playing Under 13s to Under 18s cricket for them before joining Thunder’s Academy in 2022.

When you look at her career stats, it’s interesting to note that her best recorded return for any team is 5-34 from eight overs in a 40-over County Cup game for Cheshire Under 18s against their Lancashire counterparts at Leigh in June 2021.

Current team-mates Seren Smale, Daisy Mullan and Liberty Heap were in Red Rose colours that day. You wonder how big an impact that performance had on her arrival at Emirates Old Trafford.

Bell is a bowler who has admitted that keeping it simple was key to her early success in regional cricket, saying: “I have been speaking to Sophie (Ecclestone) and Ellie (Threlkeld) about things, and there is something to be said for bowling straight in a T20.

“If you are hitting the stumps, there is every mode of dismissal available. That’s all I’ve tried to do.”