Whatever happens in the RHF Trophy final at Lord’s today, there is little doubt that Diamonds have been the best team this year, and on form ought to overturn their 5-year-long run of finishing runners-up in the Women’s County Championship (2017-19 as Yorkshire) and RHF Trophy (2020-21).
Diamonds finished top of both the batting and bowling metrics, calculated across all of the group-stage matches.
Batting
| Batting | Balls Per… | Avg Run Rate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wicket | Dot | Single | Two | 4/6 | 1st Ins | 2nd Ins | PP | |
| Diamonds | 43 | 1.93 | 3.46 | 18 | 12 | 5.33 | 5.10 | 5.38 |
| Stars | 33 | 1.87 | 3.60 | 20 | 11 | 5.25 | 4.55 | 5.65 |
| Vipers | 38 | 1.98 | 3.30 | 20 | 12 | 5.30 | 4.98 | 4.15 |
| Storm | 34 | 1.79 | 3.93 | 24 | 12 | 5.10 | 4.88 | 4.18 |
| Lightning | 31 | 1.79 | 3.75 | 22 | 13 | 4.33 | 4.84 | 4.48 |
| Thunder | 36 | 1.83 | 3.52 | 20 | 15 | 4.69 | 3.65 | 4.45 |
| Sunrisers | 30 | 1.78 | 3.76 | 20 | 15 | 5.08 | 4.33 | 4.20 |
| Sparks | 34 | 1.74 | 4.05 | 23 | 15 | 4.53 | 4.24 | 3.97 |
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The two leading run-scorers in the competition were both Diamonds – Lauren Winfield-Hill (405 runs) and Holly Armitage (329 runs) – and furthermore both scored their runs at a strike rate of over 90. (The average strike rate for the 10 batters scoring more than 200 runs in the competition’s group stages was 83.) With Winfield-Hill opening and Armitage coming in at 3 (but invariably an early 3, because Linsey Smith has struggled opening the batting alongside Winfield-Hill) the Diamonds have typically given themselves a huge platform for Bess Heath (179 runs at 95) to then come in later and pile-on even more runs with the freedom to play her natural hitting game.
Bowling
| Bowling | Balls Per… | Avg Run Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wicket | Dot | Single | Two | 4/6 | Wide | 1st Ins | 2nd Ins | PP | |
| Diamonds | 36 | 1.76 | 3.88 | 20 | 15 | 27 | 4.39 | 4.59 | 4.40 |
| Sparks | 33 | 1.87 | 3.46 | 18 | 14 | 32 | 5.00 | 4.69 | 4.04 |
| Vipers | 35 | 1.94 | 3.06 | 22 | 16 | 28 | 4.36 | 4.88 | 4.45 |
| Stars | 31 | 1.86 | 3.47 | 35 | 13 | 21 | 6.12 | 4.39 | 4.43 |
| Thunder | 40 | 1.71 | 4.54 | 19 | 11 | 31 | 4.21 | 4.98 | 4.75 |
| Lightning | 37 | 1.83 | 3.72 | 19 | 12 | 31 | 5.34 | 4.00 | 4.50 |
| Sunrisers | 38 | 1.82 | 3.71 | 23 | 12 | 24 | 4.81 | 5.24 | 4.92 |
| Storm | 45 | 1.92 | 3.68 | 17 | 11 | 24 | 5.28 | 4.88 | 4.97 |
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The leading wicket-taker in the tournament was Grace Scrivens (who was also the 3rd-highest run-scorer) but there were three Diamonds players in the Top 10* wicket-takers: Linsey Smith (11), Katie Levick (10) and Holly Armitage (9). Linsey Smith in particular also complemented her wickets by being one of the most economical bowlers in the competition – of the bowlers to send down more than 20 overs, she returned the second-best economy rate of 3.57 per over, bettered only by Scrivens 3.23.
(*Top 10… ish – Armitage was one of 6 players in joint-tenth on 9 wickets.)
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