Dutch international Sterre Kalis played four knockout fixtures in two days, playing for Yorkshire in Tier Two T20 Blast Finals Day before representing her loan county Warwickshire in the Tier One event 24 hours later.
The women's T20 Blast is split into three separate tiers. The Tier One Blast is made up of eight professional counties, while the Tier Two competition is made up of a mix 10 semi-professional and professional counties. While there is no performance-based promotion and relegation between the tiers, Yorkshire are set to move up to Tier One next year, while Glamorgan will do the same in 2027.
As such, Yorkshire in particular have made use of the loan system to ensure their best players were involved in Tier One this season to prepare for next year. This has seen regular captain Lauren Winfield-Hill play for both Essex in Tier One and Yorkshire in Tier Two the competition, while Kallis has primarily represented Birmingham Bears. Yorkshire qualified for Tier Two Blast finals day after dominating the North group, while Birmingham Bears qualified for the Tier One event having placed third in the round-robin. Given that both Kalis and Winfield-Hill had played for Yorkshire at least once in the group stage, they were eligible to feature in Tier Two finals day. However, Kalis was also eligible to feature for Birmingham Bears in Tier One Finals Day, with both events scheduled for consecutive days.
Kalis came in at No.3 for Yorkshire in their semi-final against Glamorgan at Northampton on Saturday, July 26, but was out for 1 off 5 balls. Nevertheless, Yorkshire won the match by seven wickets and advanced to the final. Facing Middlesex, they were routed batting first and were only able to post 101, with Kalis out for a two-ball duck. They lost the game by 10 wickets, with Middlesex getting through both the semi-final and final without losing a wicket.
The following day, Birmingham Bears were scheduled to play the Blaze in the Qualifier for the Tier One final at The Oval. Less than 24 hours after losing the Tier Two final, Kalis turned out for her loan county in south London. This time, she played a crucial part in Warwickshire's victory in the first match of the day, scoring 45 off 33 balls as the Bears set 164 to chase. The Blaze fell short in the end, bowled out for 143 with five balls of the innings remaining.
With Surrey waiting in the final, the crunch match will be Kalis's fourth knockout game in two days, and second final.
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