England looking to have fun by playing high-quality cricket: Corteen-Coleman

New Delhi: Ahead of 2025 U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, left-arm spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman said England are looking to have lots of fun by playing high-quality competitive cricket. England finished as runners-up in 2023 edition after losing to India in the final at Potchefstroom, South Africa.

“As a team, I think we are looking to have loads of fun out there, but playing high-quality and competitive cricket is what we are really going out there for. We have a bit of a team motto: ‘evolve, embrace, enjoy’ -evolve ourselves, embrace the challenge, and enjoy ourselves. All of our cricket will be playing with those values in mind.

“We are going to be doing our very best to win. I was in school at the time of the last one (U19 Women’s T20 World Cup), I couldn’t watch all of it. I followed as much as I could. I knew a lot of the players in the team, so I was rooting for them. It’s a shame they didn’t get over the line but they played some really exciting cricket,” Tilly was quoted as saying by ICC.

Tilly burst onto the scene in 2024 by taking four wickets in four balls in the Charlotte Edwards Cup for South East Stars before becoming the youngest player and youngest wicket-taker in the history of The Hundred women’s competition. Convinced by elder brother Hugo to play cricket, Tilly grew up close to Kent’s home ground in Canterbury.

After switching from seam bowling to spin on the advice of her under-11s coach, David Sear, Tilly rose through the pathways at Kent and got to learn a lot about the game from Laura Marsh, Lydia Greenway, Charlotte Edwards and Tammy Beaumont.

“I started at my local club, St Lawrence and Highland Court, when I was six. I really started because I wanted to copy my brother. We are really competitive and I couldn’t bear the thought that he might be better than me at something.

“From a young age, I knew it was what I wanted to do. I remember going to junior school and we had a careers day where we had to come to school dressed as what you want to be when you’re older. I went dressed as a cricketer. So, I always knew what I was going to do,” she said. IANS

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