On a muggy day at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton, in front of a crowd of 1,700, the Stars won the toss and elected to bat against the Vipers, as the only two unbeaten sides in the tournament went head-to-head, with direct qualification for the final potentially at stake.

Lizelle Lee got the Stars off to a racing start, hitting 19 of the 21 runs that came off the first two overs – Tammy Beaumont hardly got a look-in before she was the victim of a fine catch on the deep midwicket boundary by Danni Wyatt, leaping up to save the six and dismiss her England colleague for a duck.

The carnage continued, as Lee hit 13 off a Hayley Matthews over. She was dropped by Georgia Adams at long off on 28 off Linsey Smith, and then raced on to 40 before she was finally caught by Suzie Bates at cover off Tash Farrant – at that point Stars were on 47 in the 5th over, with only a single run having come off a bat other than Lee’s.

Lee’s dismissal finally stemmed the bleeding, with the run rate slowing considerably in the post-powerplay overs. Nat Sciver ran herself out for 14, taking on the arm of Hayley Matthews at mid off and losing out to a direct hit; Bryony Smith holed-out to Bates for 5 off 10 balls; and Sophia Dunkley became another run-out victim after calling for a suicidal single that Marizanne Kapp was having none of.

Kapp herself meanwhile played steadily, picking up the pace after a watchful start, eventually caught behind by Carla Rudd for 42 from 48 balls.

Laura Marsh was cleaned-up by Matthews in the penultimate over for 4 off 8; and with Kirstie White another run-out victim in the final over, the Stars ended up perhaps 10-15 short of where they might have hoped to have been after such a cracking start – 127-8 off the 20.

The Stars opened the bowling with Laura Marsh and Marizanne Kapp, who kept Suzie Bates and Hayley Matthews in check for the opening 4 overs. Nat Sciver then brought herself on and saw her first two balls smacked for consecutive 4s by Bates – the over eventually going for 15, to put the Vipers right back on track.

The Vipers finished the powerplay at 35, where the Stars had been at 56, with the required rate a shade over 6.5, but with no wickets down. That soon changed however when Hayley Matthews made the mistake of trying to get after Alex Hartley, horribly slicing a lofted drive to Bryony Smith at point.

The return of Laura Marsh at the Pavilion End brought 2 further quick wickets – Mignon du Preez, in her first at-bat since the World Cup, made just 2 before she was stumped by Tammy Beaumont, and Danni Wyatt was soon following her back to the dugout, bowled for a duck, as 35-0 became 41-3.

With Bates still at the crease there was always hope for the Vipers, as she was joined by Arran Brindle, who made 19 in a partnership of 37 before being given out LBW to Nat Sciver.

Then came the duck parade – Georgia Adams was run out for nought, guilty of just not running hard enough after being called for a quick single; Charlotte Edwards, playing her first “pro” innings since WBBL, was bowled by Sciver for another quacker; and then Carla Rudd became the third duck in a row – LBW also to Sciver.

With the rain coming down hard, Suzie Bates and Tash Farrant took 16 from an Alex Hartley over, taking Bates to 50; but when the umpires finally called the players off in the 17th over, the Vipers were still 4 behind on Duckworth Lewis at 100-7.

And that was how it stayed – the Stars winning by 4 runs on D/L when play was abandoned, to put themselves at the top of the table on 3 wins out of 3 and well on course for Finals Day.

Speaking afterwards, the Stars’ Marizanne Kapp told CRICKETher:

“We are pleased with the win – it would have been a bit close at the end there, but we held our nerve. Any win, we’ll take it, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into the next two games and they’ll go our way and we’ll go straight into the final.”

Comparing this season to last, when the Stars failed to qualify for Finals Day, she explained:

“Last year we didn’t know each other – it is difficult, especially if you only have five games and you have to fire from game one. Last year we didn’t start too well; but this year we know the girls, we know the role each player plays and I think that is what ultimately is working for us.”

Diamonds bt. Lightning by 17 runs (Report)

Chamari Atapattu

In the space of an English summer, the Sri Lankan has gone from Atapat-who to Atapat-woo! After hitting the biggest innings of the World Cup – 178* against Australia – and finishing the tournament with an average of over 50, she is now bringing some really classy batting to the Super League. She is quite a traditional player, and you won’t catch her ramping or reverse sweeping, so she is maybe missing out behind the wicket; but she is making her game work for her so far, and it is hard to argue with the runs she is scoring in KSL (107) or the Strike Rate at which she is scoring them (130).

Katherine Brunt

I’ve been reluctant to call her an “all-rounder” but who has the highest Strike Rate in KSL so far? Suzie Bates? Nat Sciver? Nope – it’s Katherine Brunt, with 77 runs at 197! And it would have been more yesterday, if not for a very dodgy call from Atapattu, who was on 49 at the time and desperate to get to her 50. Brunt then opened the bowling, and took 2-2 in the powerplay. And they were “proper” wickets too – Jones bowled and Perry LBW – not cheap “caught at cow corners”.

The Toss

Lightning won the toss and put the Diamonds in. With weather around, the potential advantage is that you know exactly what you’ve got to do in a Duckworth-Lewis situation in the second innings. But in a game which had already been shortened by a third, it is a risky move too. With less overs to get through, the team batting first can really go for it – wickets hardly matter – and consequently in the reply, the required run-rate always looks bigger than it perhaps actually is.

Not only that, but just a couple of low-scoring  overs early-on can really pile on the psychological pressure as the rate starts to climb, and this is what we saw here: the required rate started at 8.5; but after two overs of Katherine Brunt it was closing-in on 10, even though Davidson-Richards had been hit for 11 in the over in-between. Georgia Elwiss gave it her best shot, hitting 41 off 28 balls; but once Villani was out, there was really no chance – Thea Brookes and Sonia Odedra are good players, but not 10-an-over players, and so it proved with the Lightning ending more than a run-an-over short.

In a game reduced to 13 overs per side, after the match was delayed by an hour and a half due to a torrential downpour at Loughborough just before the scheduled start time, Yorkshire Diamonds came out on top thanks to a superb all-round performance by their overseas Chamari Atapattu.

After two losses leading up to this fixture, the Lightning nevertheless opted to go unchanged; whilst Yorkshire were able to bring back Jenny Gunn for Katie Thompson.

Batting first after being put in, the Diamonds got off to a good start as Chamari Atapattu and Lauren Winfield raced to 25, before Winfield was caught on the square boundary by Beth Langston off Sonia Odedra.

This brought Sophie Devine to the crease, who struggled as she looked to drive, but couldn’t get past mid on/ mid off, and was eventually bowled for 2 off 9 balls, missing a straight one from Georgia Elwiss.

Meanwhile Atapattu continued to play classily all around the wicket, including a couple of big sixes down the ground. She got a little nervous in the 40s – she was dropped by Langston on 47 off Perry, and then managed to run out Katherine Brunt when she was on 49, as she bunted Kristen Beams into the on side and called for the run but only ended up running out Brunt, who had been looking good for a rapid 21.

With the overs closing in, Alice Davidson-Richards tried to play a bit too expansively early-doors to Beams and was bowled for 1 off two balls. Jenny Gunn lasted just one ball longer – hanging out her bat to try to run Beth Langston down to third man, she ended up bowled in a rather sheepish fashion by her England colleague.

But Atapattu continued to push calmly on, eventually finishing on to 66 not out off 40 balls, with nine 4s and two 6s, as Yorkshire closed on 110-5.

The Lightning reply began with a stutter, as Katherine Brunt bowled Amy Jones off the last ball of the first over for 2 with the total on 2; but 11 runs off the second over from Davidson Richards got things going for the Lightning.

However, Brunt struck again with her very next ball at the start of the third over – Ellyse Perry unimpressed to be given out LBW, though the analyst cam in the press box suggested it was good decision. Georgia Elwiss saw off the hat trick ball but there was just 1 off the over from there and the ball was back in the Diamond’s court once again.

Atapattu bowled Elyse Villani with her first ball – a slow, languid delivery which Villani found herself on to too quickly; and Sophie Devine soon joined the party, tempting Thea Brookes into a big shot which only found Lauren Winfield at deep mid off, leaving the Lighting in some trouble at 31-4.

Elwiss finally took the fight back to the Diamonds, hitting 16 off the 10th over bowled by Jenny Gunn; but with Lightning needing another big over, Katie Levick held her nerve, going for just 7 despite some big swooshes, and there was no way back for the Lightning from there, especially when they lost Elwiss for 41, well caught by Maddie Walsh off Atapattu – the Sri Lankan finishing with 2-11 as the Diamonds closed well short on 93-5.

Afterwards Sophie Devine was full of praise for Chamari Atapattu:

“She has been fantastic – to think that she only got brought in last minute – to do the job she has done is a credit to her – we all knew how well she played in the World Cup, and she’s just continued that on. Her strength is to play in the ‘V’ and to play straight, and she showed that today – it doesn’t matter who the bowler is or what the field is – if she backs herself she’ll be able to execute.”

The result puts the Diamonds back on course for Finals Day, but leaves the Lightning all-but out of it now, with 3 losses.

Southern Stars skipper Meg “Megastar” Lanning will miss the entire Australian season, including the Women’s Ashes this October/ November, after having undergone an operation on her right shoulder.

The shoulder troubled Lanning throughout the recent World Cup, and it was clearly only a matter when, not if, she had the surgery.

Team physio Kate Mahony said:

“Meg underwent surgery earlier this week and we expect that she will require a long rehabilitation period of 6-8 months.”

It will be interesting to see who captain’s Australia during the Ashes – Alex Blackwell, the official vice-captain, was overlooked when Lanning sat out of a couple of games at the World Cup, in favour of Rachael Haynes, even though Haynes can’t hold a place in the side on merit – the only matches she played were the ones she captained.

Coach Matthew Mott said at the time that Haynes was “a captain of the future” but she is 30 – 5 years older than Lanning – so that would presumably be a future where Cricket Australia have invented a time machine!

The more prosaic truth seems to be that Blackwell has fallen out of favour and Mott didn’t want to create a “line of succession” or cause ill-feeling between the younger players by nominating one over another; but that might now be a call circumstances will force him to take.

Martin Saxon reports

Surrey Stars comfortably made it two wins from two, and look in fine shape going into the business end of the Kia Super League competition. Lancashire Thunder however will almost certainly need to win all three remaining matches to reach Finals Day after collapsing to a second defeat.

Many observers had tipped the Thunder for bigger things this year. However, most of their elite players are bowlers once again – Sophie Ecclestone, Danni Hazell, Kate Cross and Lea Tahuhu. Jess Jonassen is of course a more than capable batsman, but may not score fast enough for T20, leaving Sarah Taylor and Amy Satterthwaite to shoulder a large burden.

The Stars meanwhile look much more solid, with an experienced bowling attack complementing a powerful top four of Tammy Beaumont, Lizelle Lee, Marizanne Kapp and Nat Sciver.

Indeed, the period when Taylor and Satterthwaite were batting together was the only stage at which a home victory looked likely. Taylor in particular looked in fine form, but her wish to play a shot off every ball ultimately proved her downfall. At this stage, the required rate did not call for all-out attack, but after striking the first ball of a Rene Farrell over for four, Taylor still felt the need to play the ramp shot to the second delivery, and duly perished for 34 in doing so.

From 75-2 and 86-3, the Thunder’s collapse to 100 all out was a sorry tale indeed, and in no way could it be described as a good advert for elite women’s cricket. Farrell finished with 5-26, Laura Marsh with 2-12 and Alex Hartley 2-25. There was a fine catch by Lee during the collapse, then an even better take from Farrell off her own bowling to wrap things up.

The Stars had already posted a total of 133, thanks to a glut of runs early and late in the innings. Beaumont looked in ominous form as she led the way in her side scoring 50 in the six-over powerplay. Having the ‘fastest bowler in women’s cricket’ is proving more of a curse than a blessing for Thunder, for whom Tahuhu was once again wayward and expensive.

Although Ecclestone conceded only two in the seventh over, and picked up a wicket, this meant that Sciver joined Beaumont at the crease – a powerful combination by any measure. However, Beaumont was duly dismissed by Hazell for 36 in the next over. This heralded a period when the Thunder were on top, with the run rate for the period between the 7th and 16th overs barely rising above four. For all their weaknesses in other areas, the Thunder undoubtedly have a fine spin attack, with Hazell finishing with figures of 2-16 and Ecclestone a return of 1-19.

However, all that changed when the run rate increased to ten per over for the final four overs, as Sciver (40*) and Sophia Dunkley (24*) pressed the accelerator. Their efforts were more than enough to take the game away from the home side.

Emerging players watch

Dunkley played a vital role in the Stars’ acceleration in the closing overs. Evelyn Jones made 26 from 28 deliveries, with five fours, opening up for the Thunder, playing some genuinely good cricket shots rather than the usual T20 mix of big hitting and improvisation. Less positively, every bowler used in this match was already a fully capped international.

In light of this match, I am aware that comments have already been made about this issue on this site. Some players must know going into the match that they won’t be bowling, and will only be batting if their side lose a lot of wickets – this probably applied to Natasha Miles on the Thunder side and Grace Gibbs and Hannah Jones for the Stars. Quite apart from the issue of it being disheartening for the players themselves, it’s also far from ideal for their family and friends, who may have travelled significant distances and taken time off work to watch their loved ones in what should be ‘the biggest game of their lives’.

In this respect, having six teams leaves us somewhere between a rock and a hard place. Either you reduce the teams to four, and make it more of an elite competition that better showcases women’s cricket; or you have eight or nine teams, cut the England and overseas representation in each squad to two and force teams to make more use of some of their non-international players. Only in the latter case could the Super League really be said to be ‘bridging the gap’.

The match experience

Inevitably, when the match began at 2.30, a small crowd was scattered around the cavernous Old Trafford arena – all part of the trade-off that is apparently necessary to get these matches on television. Regular watchers of Lancashire CCC did comment however that the ground looked fuller than for many weekday men’s county championship fixtures.

The 90-minute gap between the women’s and men’s matches seemed almost interminable.

An on-field interview with Taylor and Hazell was broadcast on the big screen just before the men’s match commenced, and the pair did show off the World Cup trophy during that item. However, surely a trick was missed by not allowing the two players to do a full lap of the ground with the trophy?

@MartinSaxon

Stars bt. Thunder by 33 runs

First We Take Manhattan

The 5-Over Manhattan shows where the game was won and lost. The Stars had the better of the powerplay, but the Thunder really pulled it back and were actually ahead after 15 overs – 91 to 86 – but the scoreboard pressure created by the Stars’ big final quarter really told, and the Thunder ended up bowled-out as they tried to chase the runs.

Sophia Dunkley

The Stars big final quarter was very-much down to Sophia Dunkley, who hit 24 off 17 balls, ensuring that Nat Sciver – 40 off 36 at the other end – didn’t have to farm the strike. Dunkley and Sciver between them made every ball count, turning a par effort into a good score by running hard between the wickets – the vast majority of the runs in their 54-run partnership coming in 1s and 2s.

Rene Farrell

Perhaps it was appropriate that it was in Bullseye host Jim Bowen’s native Lancashire that Rene Farrell held up a big sign to the Australian selectors echoing his famous catchphrase: “Look at what you could have won!” Her 5fer showed just what Australia were missing during the World Cup; and how much they could have done with her being in England a month earlier!

Grace Gibbs

Is Grace Gibbs on course to be this year’s Cait O’Keefe ? O’Keefe played every game for the Western Storm last season, but didn’t bat or bowl; and Gibbs is currently on-course to repeat the feat this year! The serious point, however, is that this is one problem with having a competition so densely-packed with superstars – the new talent hardly gets a look-in sometimes, and it feels a bit unfair; though it is difficult to see what to do about it, short of a playing condition requiring players to either bowl or bat in the top 5? (Answers on a postcard, if you’ve got a better idea!)

Vipers bt. Lightning by 46 runs

Suzie Bates

If anyone was still wondering where we got the crazy idea that New Zealand were going to win the World Cup, we present Exhibit A: Suzie Bates in imperious form once again, taking her second consecutive Player of the Match award of the tournament. Her 119 is the highest score ever made in a “pro” domestic T20, beating the previous record 103 held jointly by Sophie Devine (in WBBL02) and Grace Harris (in WBBL01). She then went on to take 3 wickets for 15 as the Lightning were bowled out off the final ball, with the (admittedly massive) target still a distant speck on the horizon.

Sarah Glenn

The 18-year-old was perhaps a surprise selection, given that Marie Kelly had acquitted herself pretty well on her debut v the Storm. Glenn has made a few runs for Derbyshire over the past couple of seasons in Div 2/3, but nothing to write home about; so it was fantastic to see her jump feet-first into the KSL with 25 off 21 balls.

“That” Run Out

Elyse Villani was given run out at the non-strikers end off Tash Farrant’s fingertip on the follow-through, but… did she or didn’t she? The ball certainly appeared to deviate on the replay from the umpire-cam; but the view from the other end looked a lot less conclusive. Obviously Farrant felt she had got a hand on it, but you’ll “feel” a ball travelling at that speed even if you don’t quite touch it. My impression is that she probably did make contact, though others will disagree; but the really interesting question is whether she meant to? If you are the Vipers, it was smart work… if you are the Lightning, Villani was unlucky – you pays your money and you takes your choice I guess!

That “Other” Run Out

There was no doubt about the other run out Farrant effected though – that of Ellyse Perry. Georgia Adams will get the credit on the scorecard, but the ball was missing until Farrant (standing in front of the stumps, as the England players are coached to do) gathered it and diverted it on in a single, brilliant movement. That is where all those hours of fielding drills make the difference for the pros – first judging that it was indeed going to miss, and then executing the move to change the course of the ball without losing anything but a fraction of its speed. Suzie Bates or no Suzie Bates, it was the Play of the Day for me!

Storm bt. Lightning by 5 wickets, with 5 balls remaining

Stafanie Taylor – 1…

If yesterday belonged to the journeymen, today belonged to one of the superstars – Stafanie Taylor looked like she was playing on a different pitch to everyone else. Having already run out Ellyse Perry (of whom more later) she then took the wickets of Elwiss, Odedra and Brookes in one over, to break the back of the Lightning innings, finishing with figures of 4-5. She then went on to top-score with 34 off 32 balls, as the Storm made slightly hard work of the chase to win with 5 balls to spare.

… Ellyse Perry – 0

The Lighting got off to a good start, but that was mostly down to Amy Jones, with 21 off 13 balls. At the other end, Ellyse Perry made four more runs (25) but they took her fifteen more balls! She then took 0-17 with the ball, at an economy rate of 5.36. She wasn’t awful, but if anyone paid their money today to see Ellyse Perry the World-Beating Superstar… they would have left a bit disappointed!

Marie Kelly

Kelly entered the fray on her KSL debut in an awful situation. Lightning had just collapsed to 59-5 – there wasn’t much batting to come, and there were still 10 overs left. She had to do one thing, and one thing only: stay there! And that she did – it cost balls (at one point she was 1 off 10) but it had to be done. Then, things having finally settled down, she began to push the boat out, finishing with 18 off 30 – i.e. 17 off 20 in the second “half” of her innings. Job done, as they say!

Freya Davies

Before the tournament began, Heather Knight was talking up Davies new slower ball, which we saw rolled-out* today. She ended up with just the one wicket (though it was the big one of Amy Jones) but more importantly in the T20 game a very good economy rate of 4.25, including 13 dots – bearing in mind 3 of her overs were bowled to Jones and Perry in the PowerPlay, that’s a pretty good return.

—————-

* Rolled-out… as in rolled-out the back of her hand!!! No??? Oh… well I thought it was good, but never mind – I won’t roll that joke out again!!

New Zealand’s Suzie Bates put her World Cup disappointments behind her to hit 47 not out off 31 balls to lead the Southern Vipers to an opening-day bonus-point win against the Western Storm.

On a hot day at the Ageas Bowl in Hampshire, the Vipers won the toss and captain Charlotte Edwards elected to bowl, with her opposite number Heather Knight admitting the Storm would have done the same, with the pitch having sweated under the covers after several days of rain.

Opening the bowling, Tash Farrant, having played very little cricket during the World Cup hiatus, struggled a little bit with her line, but got slightly lucky when Rachel Priest flashed at a ball which would have been called for a second consecutive wide, but Priest got a thin edge and was well caught by Carla Rudd standing up to the stumps.

At the other end, Linsey Smith continued where she left off a year ago – bowling tidily and taking the wicket of Heather Knight with a classic Smith “Sucker Punch” – a ball which looked a good length to sweep but kept low, ducking under Knight’s bat to bowl her for 1.

Having faced dot after dot, Georgia Hennessy finally started to get going in the 9th over, hitting Aran Brindle for a 6 and two 4s. But Hennessy was out 2 balls later, and remarkably those were the only boundaries the Storm scored in their entire innings.

Fran Wilson (10) was the only other batsman to reach double-figures, as the Storm disintegrated – helped along their way by a some top-draw fielding – Charlotte Edwards taking the catch to dismiss Stafanie Taylor at mid off, before running out Sophie Luff for a 4-ball duck; and then Linsey Smith topping off her contribution with the ball with a fantastic direct hit to end Freya Davies’ late 7-run cameo, hitting the stumps from outside the ring at cover point, to bowl the Storm out for 70 – the 2nd-lowest total in the KSL’s (admittedly short!) history.

As Suzie Bates said afterwards:

“When you go out to bat after a start like that, you have a lot of confidence.”

It nearly didn’t happen for her, however, as Rachel Priest fluffed a straightforward stumping chance in the first over – fumbling the ball, giving Bates time to dive back into her crease and beat the 3rd umpire review by a whisker.

But the real gift however came from Holly Huddleston, who had one of those overs that will give her nightmares for years to come. After Hayley Matthews took a single off the second ball, Bates then proceeded to hit five 4s and a 6 as the Hudd Missile misfired for four no balls, going for 34 runs off the over – almost half the total the Vipers needed.

“It is never nice to see,” Bates admitted later. “The first two, to be honest, I was licking my lips at a free hit, but then you do start to feel for a player like that. Holly had a really good World Cup and she is an outstanding bowler so I feel for her – it is her first chance in one of these leagues and she’ll be really disappointed; but she is the type of character that will bounce back!”

Ironically, it was a Vipers player – Hayley Matthews – who then played probably the worst shot of the day. Trying to dink Stafanie Taylor over the top of midwicket, the ball ended up in the hands of Georgia Hennessy on the other side of the pitch at extra cover! But it was all academic by then anyway, as Bates and Georgia Adams played out the game, Bates finishing things off with a 6 for the win inside 10 overs!

Summing up, Bates concluded:

“That was a tough wicket – it was holding a little bit and fortunately we won the toss and it was a little bit drier when we batted.”

“I thought we were outstanding with the ball – that was our strength last year – we got off to a good start and we were able to contain them and take wickets.”

Meanwhile, the Storm’s Georgia Hennessy also admitted the toss played its part, but wasn’t making excuses:

“It was a good toss to win in T20 cricket; but we should have hit the ball the ball straighter and harder earlier on and backed ourselves.”

“It wasn’t our day with the bat or ball but we’ll have a break and go again.”

The big win gives the Vipers an extra bonus point for getting the runs at more than 1.25x the rate of their opponents, and has set down a marker that they mean business again this season.