This afternoon the Northern Superchargers and Birmingham Phoenix women’s teams clashed in The Hundred (the men’s match is just getting underway as I type. This post looks back at the women’s match.
AN INNINGS IN THREE PARTS
Birmingham Phoenix found themselves batting first. The pitch was a good one, though the playing area was very large, and this factor played its role in proceedings. At 44-1 after 30 balls Phoenix looked to be going nicely. Then came a collapse, caused largely by bad batting. First Emma Lamb tried to aerial against the off spin of Lucy Higham and picked out Annabel Sutherland to make it 44-2. Then 11 runs accrued before the real collapse hit. Marie Kelly, bowled by Linsey Smith for 20 was actually got out, and Ellyse Perry, run out when Sutherland deflected a drive from Sterre Kalis into the bowler’s end stumps with the Aussie superstar out of her crease was genuinely unlucky. However Amy Jones, who holed to Sutherland off Grace Ballinger for 1, and Ailsa Lister who went aerial against Higham and succeeded only in finding the safe hands of Kate Cross, also for 1 both played brainless shots. Lister’s dismissal made the score 59-6 from 51 balls, with four wickets having gone for four runs in 12 balls, while five had fallen for 15 in 21 balls. The unbroken seventh wicket stand between Kalis and Em Arlott which took the score on to 116 by the end of the 100 balls, and in which neither player was seriously troubled served only to illustrate just how badly Phoenix had batted to suffer that collapse. Left arm spinner Linsey Smith had 2-18 from her 20 balls.
THE SUPERCHARGERS CHASE
This match had been billed as featuring a clash of Aussie titans, with Ellyse Perry and Annabel Sutherland in opposition to one another. However, it was to be another Aussie, 22 year old Phoebe Litchfield, who stole the show in the end. Davina Perrin and Alice Davidson-Richards put on 27 from 19 balls before Perrin was out, which brought Litchfield to the crease. The score had risen to 59 by the time Davidson-Richards was out to the 46th ball of the innings. This brought Sutherland in to join her compatriot. However the more experienced Aussie had to settle on this occasion for a supporting role, as the young left hander produced a quite glorious display. Learning the lessons from what had befallen Phoenix, Litchfield settled for fours and for running well between the wickets on other occasions. When the Superchargers sealed an eight wicket win with 26 balls to spare Litchfield had scored 59 not out from 28 balls with 11 fours, while Sutherland was 20 not out from 13 balls with two fours. Phoenix were guilty of some poor fielding along the way – Megan Schutt, the veteran Aussie seamer, tried to stop one with her boot and saw it roll away for four, while Hannah Baker, with the game well and truly lost already, dropped a very easy chance from Litchfield, then 48 not out. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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