Yesterday was Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day – both semi-finals and then the final all in a day. My focus for this post will be the final itself, which I will lead up to with brief mentions of the semi-finals.
THE SEMI-FINALS
In the first semi-final Blaze held Central Sparks to 140-9 in 20 overs and chased this target down with five wickets and two overs in hand, a comfortable victory. The second match, between South East Stars and Southern Vipers was a tighter affair – Stars scored 162-5 from their 20 overs, and Vipers fought hard but ended up five runs short, in a match that went to the last ball – a six off that delivery and Vipers would have been in the final.
THE FINAL
Blaze won the toss and decided to bowl. Going into this match Blaze had won all six of the matches in which they had chased this season, so Stars knew they had to put up a big total to have a chance. When the first over yielded 18 things were looking good for them. However although there were promising moments from most of the Stars batter they could not build on this excellent start – the tale of the innings was of batters getting going and then getting out before making a serious contribution. In the end they finished with 141-9, with Georgia Redmayne’s 25 the biggest single contribution. Heather Graham and Josie Groves took the principal bowling honours with three wickets each. Kathryn Bryce had 1-11 from three overs and took a catch, while Sarah Bryce had two stumpings, both off Groves.
Stars benefitted from a huge slice of luck early in the reply – a drive from Marie Kelly deflected off the bowler Farrant into the non-strikers end stumps with Tammy Beaumont out of her ground for a freak run out. Kelly herself was second out at 37, with Kathryn Bryce already going very well. Sarah Bryce joined her sister at the crease and the pair took the game right away from Stars. Kathryn Bryce, the leading run scorer of this season’s tournament, completed her fifth 50 of the competition off 35 balls, with Sarah Bryce playing a fine support role. The partnership was worth 79 when a fine delivery from Danielle Gregory beat Kathryn Bryce’s attempted reverse sweep and bowled her for 62 (45). Heather Graham joined Sarah Bryce, who now assumed control of proceedings. By the time the 19th over started the ask was down to 10. That proved not even enough to take it to the final over, as Stars skipper Bryony Smith decided to trust this over to Ryana McDonald-Gay who had gone for 19 in her only previous over. Sarah Bryce emulated her sister’s feat of reaching 50, but ironically the winning hit was made by Graham, with a four. Sarah Bryce ended with 52 not out off 46 balls. Kathryn Bryce’s all round performance saw her named Player of the Match. The Bryce sisters incidentally are Scottish, and are separated by two years, Kathryn being 26 and Sarah 24. Tilly Corteen-Coleman, a 16 year old left arm orthodox spinner, had the excellent figures of 4-0-24-0. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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