Bryce for impact

Growing up Sarah Bryce took to wicketkeeping to keep herself more active and involved on the cricket field. Her parents encouraged it too, for it meant a different skillset than her sister Kathryn, who was shaping up to be a medium-pace allrounder, and hence less competitiveness between the two young sisters. Little did they know her wicketkeeping was eventually going to make Sarah a globetrotter.

Cricket wasn't her only choice of sport. Sarah played hockey until recently for her alma mater Loughborough University, where she studied mathematics and Kathryn did her degree in sports science. It was during their time at Loughborough that the idea of cricket as a profession took shape.

When English cricket revamped its domestic structure ahead of the launch of The Hundred, both Kathryn and Sarah received full-time ECB contracts with Lightning Cricket (now The Blaze) in December 2020, making them the only players, in a 41-member list, from an ICC Associate nation to receive such a benefit. Bryce sisters could now solely focus on their cricket careers now instead of "looking for a job after uni".

"I was quite lucky that I've always wanted to kind of play cricket to as high a standard as possible but I didn't know if that was going to be possible… to be professional, and then lockdown happened," Sarah tells Cricbuzz. "Fortunately, I came out of the COVID lockdown with my first professional contract through the ECB. I'm just really lucky with the timing of it all, and being at Loughborough University which afforded me that opportunity."

Only 21 then, Sarah made her Women's Hundred debut for Oval Invincibles in the inaugural year. After a forgettable first season, the younger of the two Bryce sisters moved to Welsh Fire, and that's where Sarah flourished. The most recent edition of the 100-ball competition saw Bryce playing a pivotal role and a match-winning hand of 51* as Welsh made the finals. Even though they eventually ended second-best to London Spirit in a thrilling finish, Sarah stood out with her impressive glovework and the ability to churn out useful knocks when needed. Of course one of them taking notice was a certain Meg Lanning, playing for the eventual champions.

Sarah was the deputy to her sister when Scotland made their T20 World Cup debut in the UAE last year. Even though Scotland had a disappointing run, Sarah came out of it with a last-minute WBBL gig with the Sydney Sixers. Alyssa Healy, who had suffered a tournament-ending foot injury in the group clash against Pakistan, was a doubtful starter for the tenth edition of the Australian league and Sarah got roped in under the rookie program. With Healy's on-field workload still an area of concern once she was passed fit to return to action in the later stages of WBBL and eventually ruled out for good later, Sarah continued to be the Sixers' 'keeper throughout the season.

She left an immediate impression with the bat on arrival, making a match-winning 36 not out against Melbourne Renegades on debut and a 62 off 44 balls against the Adelaide Strikers in the following game – both innings coming at a 140-plus strike-rate. She played two other handy knocks in different batting positions in the remainder of the WBBL, albeit in losing causes, but those impact runs were enough to make her stand out. In the WPL 2025 auction that followed soon after, Lanning's Delhi Capitals roped her in as they sought to strengthen a few weak links – the runs of their first-choice wicketkeeper, or lack thereof, being the primary one.

As an associate player in the league, Sarah's inclusion meant the team could still fit in four more overseas players in its XI and Delhi Capitals haven't looked back since. On her part, Sarah did well to justify that inclusion – at the expense of a two-season veteran Taniya Bhatia – with an impact knock right away in a chase that had no business getting as tricky as it did.

Shafali Verma's blistering start in a chase of 164 against Mumbai Indians in their tournament opener had DC cruising until MI's experienced foreign bowling attack combined to trigger a collapse of 4 for 16. With the recent U19 World Cup-winning captain Niki Prasad holding fort at one end, DC still required 56 more in the last-five overs when Sarah arrived in the middle. Her 10-ball cameo of 21 – including a six off Nat Sciver-Brunt at death – put DC on the victory course albeit with some more late drama in store.

Against RCB next in a losing cause, Sarah's 19-ball 23 saw Delhi post a respectable 141 from 85/5 at one stage, as she helped arrest the regular fall of wickets with a handy lower-order knock. In four out of the next six games DC played, Sarah never got a batting opportunity, but she'd proven her usefulness with the bat early enough to permanently claim her spot in the XI despite the presence of two other Indian wicketkeeping options in the squad.

"She has been excellent for our group," Lanning said ahead of the WPL 2025 final. "She is a great person to have around, very chilled, very easy to get along with and she has fitted in really nicely to our group. On the field I think she has been great as well.

"She has had limited opportunities with the bat, but when she has come in she has really played a significant role for us. T20 cricket is about having an impact and it might be one ball or it might be ten balls and she has been able to do that for our team. I think behind the stumps she has been very tidy and taken the opportunities that she has been presented with."

The admiration is mutual, and Sarah admits there's things from her time sharing the dressing room with Lanning that she hopes to imbibe in her own game as a cricketer and as a leader. "Hearing the way she thinks about the game and goes about preparing for games, but also her openness to respecting people's individualities and that everyone goes about it differently [is a learning experience]."

Sarah, the Scotland vice-captain under her sister Kathryn, has been particularly touched by Laning's captaincy philosophy. "Her style of letting people do things their way [stood out for me]. But also once we get her on the pitch, I think she's so clear in exactly what needs to be done and just can have those really real clarity with the bowlers. Everything just seems to be under control all the time, even when things might not be. So I think that's a massive quality of hers [I'd like to pick up]."

Ticking off that bucket-list experience of playing in India with her maiden WPL stint made Sarah one of the few cricketers to experience the 'big three' of the four existing leagues for women. "The Hundred was obviously the first competition like that I've experienced, and it was eye-opener in terms of the crowds that we got along. That was really special.

"In Australia, just the strength of depth throughout the country and the standard of cricket was great. I had a great time there. WBBL is obviously one of the best tournaments. You know, Australia lead the way in terms of women's cricket. So to get to go out there and experience that and play in that competition was really special. I learned a lot from it.. kind of seeing where my skills were at, I was able to kind of do well and understand things I can hopefully keep getting better at.

"And obviously the WPL… with the crowds here playing in India is just next level. Cricket is huge in India, and the tournament is really exciting. So to get the opportunity to come out and play in the WPL, I was just absolutely buzzing for it. I just always wanted to play cricket in India and to experience that [craze for cricket in the country].

"Playing in Bangalore against RCB was a real highlight, with the crowd and the noise, especially when Pez [Ellyse Perry] got a fifty. Obviously, it wasn't great for us, but hearing the way the crowd got behind it was pretty incredible. Obviously, it was nice to then hear how much the crowd silenced in the second innings. But yeah, overall, I'll be so pleased that I've had this opportunity to experience cricket in India."

Even as she prepared for her maiden WPL stint, Kathryn had pitched in with the most important advice from her time at the Gujarat Giants last edition – to "embrace it all and enjoy every bit of it". Long before their path-breaking WPL stints as Associate Player representatives at the WPL, the Bryce sisters have been the flag-bearers of Scotland Cricket since their teenage days. In such a high-pressure job, Sarah admits it is soothing to have a "best friend" in the team.

"I feel really lucky to be able to kind of share these experiences with her and I think we've both pushed each other to be better a lot as we've grown up because we've been so competitive. But it's also just nice that you've always had someone to kind of go to the nets with or when you're, you know, going through the ups and downs that you inevitably have playing sport and cricket in particular. Having someone that understands it and can kind of help you along the way and vice versa is really special to have that kind of connection with Kathryn."

Sarah spends most of her off time reading, even in the hotel lobby and hallways. She's currently on the fourth book of the popular five-part series 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' and "highly recommends it to anyone". On other occasions, time-off has been efficiently utilised playing some tennis with teammates Jemimah Rodrigues and Arundhati Reddy, attending a music concert with the pair, and getting a crash course in Indian culture via the food and the festival of Holi that was on the eve of the final.

Besides those core memories, Sarah will soon link up with her Scotland teammates with important inputs on how to tackle subcontinental pitches and conditions as the country prepares for the ODI World Cup qualifiers in Pakistan and potentially even another World Cup debut later this year back in India. Already in encouraging signs for the captain-vice-captain duo, Scotland rubbing shoulders with the bigwigs in UAE late last year has seen a spike in interest among kids back home.

"The exposure to the game has definitely increased. And hopefully there's more young girls that can see an exciting future with cricket. If they're getting to that stage where they're maybe having to choose sports, they can look and see that and be like, 'oh, cricket, I can go to a World Cup. And I think it will probably be further down the line that you really see the effects of it. But I definitely got a sense of the excitement of us making our first World Cup. That was really cool to kind of experience that, that growth and support around the country."

Life has also changed personally and professionally for Sarah given the incredible 2024-25 season she had playing cricket all over, and sharing dressing rooms with some of the biggest names in the sport.

"I've learned a lot about my game and kind of where I'm at and hopefully where I can get to," she says. I think day-to-day life is probably just as same as it's always been, if we's honest. But it's also been kind of busier, I guess. This is the winter period where we usually have off-season back home, a lot of training. But I've been lucky enough to kind of go around and play a lot more cricket, which has been super exciting, but also comes with the challenges of finding that time to keep improving, improving my game, even though I'm out playing a lot.

"I still think probably the last sort of year or so has been a little bit of a turning point in the opportunities that arose. And it all started from qualifying for that World Cup. So it just shows what kind of those little moments can do.