South East Stars got their 2024 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign off to a winning start with a 4-wicket win against reigning champions Southern Vipers.

But, on a freezing cold day at Beckenham, Vipers made them fight for the win tooth-and-nail, taking the match right down to the 50th over before Ryana MacDonald-Gay finally hit the winning run.

Elsewhere, Storm were bowled out for 114, Blaze for 135 and Thunder for 165 in three one-sided contests. By contrast, this had all the feel of the two strongest sides in the competition laying out their cards early.

Jon Lewis doesn’t seem to frequent regional cricket, but if he did, he would certainly have watched this match with interest. The story of the day was two England bowlers-turned-batters – Freya Kemp and Tash Farrant.

Kemp, who sadly reignited her old back injury over the winter and didn’t even warm up to bowl today, came to the crease in the 30th over with Vipers 150 for 3. Ella McCaughan (30), Charli Knott (41), Georgia Adams (33) and Georgia Elwiss (44) had got Vipers off to a solid but by no means rollicking start, but it was the more aggressive approach from Kemp (50 off 47 balls) which catapulted their total above 250.

It might have been enough were it not for Tash Farrant’s spectacular effort – 94 off 97 balls, the only bum note being the missed sweep which saw her adjudged LBW to Knott, six runs short of a century.

Given that Farrant has played only a handful of matches in the past couple of seasons due to a stress fracture in her spine, and the highest she has batted for Stars previously is no.4, chucking her in at the top of the order felt like a big call from Johann Myburgh. But it paid off handsomely: Farrant hitting an opening stand with Bryony Smith of 165 runs, which is Stars’ highest partnership for any wicket, ever.

When you suffer recurring back injuries as a fast bowler, life is tough. Could Farrant rewrite her future career as a very good domestic batter? Could Kemp rewrite hers as an international pinch hitter in T20 cricket?

It was after Farrant and Smith were dismissed, within 6 overs of each other, that things got a bit sticky for Stars. With 10 overs remaining, they still needed 60 runs at a run-a-ball – they had 7 wickets in hand, but it felt like the pressure was on.

But at the best possible moment Sophia Dunkley finally found some form, hitting an unbeaten 48 from 60 balls which was almost certainly the difference between her side starting the season with a win and starting with a loss.

Even with wickets falling at the other end in the death overs – ADR bowled swiping across the line, Phoebe Franklin run out looking for a second run that wasn’t there, and Aylish Cranstone skying one to mid-off – Dunkley kept her head, doing enough to keep Stars on track until they finally got over the line with 3 balls remaining.

CRICKETher understands that the England players were mostly given a choice about whether they turned out for their regions this weekend. After a long winter (she only got back from New Zealand 10 days ago!), no one would have blamed Dunkley for sitting this one out. But no – she showed up, and Stars (and the comp) were richer for it.

England recovered from 166 for 7 to post 252 in Hamilton, eventually winning the match at a canter (by 56 runs) and with it the series.

But the scoreline rather belies the fact that England very much did the hard yards to get the win under their belts.

Tammy Beaumont was named Player of the Match for her 81 from 96 balls, continuing an emotional rollercoaster of a tour which has so far involved picking up her 100th T20 cap after a two-year wait, only to find herself dropped from the team for the final two matches of the T20 series.

Her runs were crucial today but – as Beaumont herself admitted post-match – it was all rather scrappy at times; and someone really needs to have a gentle word about her overuse of the ramp shot. And of course, she could really have done with pushing on to three figures – instead, her wicket sparked off the loss of six English wickets for 59 runs. Deja vu, anyone?

For once, New Zealand put up a fight with the bat without relying on the usual suspects – Izzy Gaze and Brooke Halliday’s 100-run partnership between the 20th and 40th overs slowly ramping up the pressure.

But New Zealand didn’t have a Beaumont-esque platform to fall back on: they were already way behind the required rate when Gaze and Halliday came together, and the pair never quite managed to catch up, meaning it was always possible that things would go belly up at the death – as indeed they did.

There was a slightly weird moment of anti-climax at the end where no one seemed to know if Bernadine Bezuidenhout (having limped off nursing a hamstring injury during England’s innings) would be batting or not. The cameras showed her sat padded up, but when it came to it, with an unlikely 50-odd runs required in 5 overs, the decision was made not to send her in. The commentators were incredibly critical of this, and in one case even vocally criticised her “lack of commitment to her country”, which seemed unfair given that we have no way of knowing how serious her injury might be.

From England’s perspective, it was great to see another confident knock from Amy Jones, following hot on the heels of her 92* in Monday’s game. A hallmark of Jones’s career has been the “coming of age knock” – every couple of years, she has one good outing with the bat, and the media then proclaim that Jones Has Finally Arrived™️. Next game, she clambers firmly back into her shell… and so the cycle goes on. After Monday’s match, Jones talked about having put in “a bit of work around my mental game” – let’s hope she is right and the boom-and-bust cycle is well and truly broken.

After a record-breaking partnership with Charlie Dean on Monday, this time Jones shared the stage with Kate Cross, who as Alex Hartley reminded us on comms, knows her way around a bat. England scored 63 runs in the final 10 overs:

The flip side of this, of course, is that the middle order failed again. Serious questions have to be asked about their mindset – one collapse can be disregarded as an accident, but three in the space of one tour looks like carelessness. England have done what they went to New Zealand to do, claiming two series wins… but there is certainly no room for complacency.

At the halfway point of the fourth T20 at Wellington, the cameras zoomed in on New Zealand captain Sophie Devine, sitting away from the action, nursing a freshly-inflicted quad injury. Her gloomy face told a thousand stories: she knew, as we all did, that – with England having put 177 on the board – the game was as good as over before New Zealand even faced a ball.

All of the talk ahead of this game had been about the return of England’s four WPL superstars, but Maia Bouchier completely stole the show with a smart, powerful innings of 91 off 56 balls – her highest ever score in T20 cricket – after Jon Lewis wisely chose to promote her to the opening spot in place of Sophia Dunkley. You can’t say she hasn’t earned it.

New Zealand should have come into this match full of confidence after England’s messy collapse handed them the third T20 on a plate, but they didn’t field like it. Five balls in, Bouchier (on 1*) edged Rosemary Mair through slip: oddly, Devine ducked out of the way, seemingly assuming that keeper Izzy Gaze would dive for it – it wasn’t clear if Gaze had called for it or if Devine just misjudged it?

Bouchier was put down twice more, on 31* and 44* – a missed caught and bowled from Jess Kerr followed what we might term an anti-double-play by Gaze, in which she first fumbled Bouchier’s edge and then missed a stumping chance, off the same delivery. Gaze is still young (just 19 years old) so this might sound a bit harsh… but if she is going to be New Zealand’s wicketkeeper of choice, they just can’t afford for her to be that much of a liability when she is stood up to the stumps.

Bouchier took full advantage, going on to hit 12 fours and two sixes in an innings which could have been tailor-made to promote NZC’s Poi initiative – plenty of Poi Whiua (twirl your poi and cheer) going on in the crowd.

England’s post-powerplay consistency was remarkable – only one over after the six-over mark went for less than 8. (That was the 14th, the only one bowled by Suzie Bates, who followed up her magical death over in the last game by being NZ’s most economical bowler in this match, which does rather beg the question as to why she doesn’t bowl more these days?)

Perhaps surprisingly after such a good WPL, Alice Capsey struggled for fluency, but to her credit recognised this and ran hard, in order to give the strike to Bouchier as much as possible. Then, after Bouchier was dismissed in the 18th, Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt upped the pace even more, with a partnership of 35 off 14 and an enormous 18-run final over.

In reply, New Zealand were actually ahead of England at the end of the powerplay, with 47 runs to England’s 35. But with both Bates and Melie Kerr already back in the dugout, and Devine unable to bat, you couldn’t help but feel that it was only a matter of time. There was a strong feeling of deja vu from the first match of the series: as soon as the field went out, New Zealand just couldn’t find the necessary boundary options to keep up with the required rate.

In the end, the only question was whether or not they would get bowled out. It was a fate they managed to avoid, finishing 7 down – but with England winning the match by a huge 47 runs, and with it the series, it will be scant consolation.

England recovered from the precarious position of 77 for 6 to post 149 for 7, enough to overcome New Zealand by 15 runs at Nelson.

Heather Knight posted a second consecutive half-century, and shared crucial partnerships of 45 off 30 with Charlie Dean, and 27 off 12 with Sarah Glenn. England’s most productive game-phase was the last 4 overs, by far:

Linsey Smith, selected in place of Lauren Filer, then proceeded to take a wicket with her first ball in international cricket in almost 5 years – Suzie Bates top-edging an attempted slog sweep to short fine leg – as New Zealand hared off after the target a bit more aggressively than they actually needed to, and ended up tripping over their own shoelaces.

This has been a very important start to the tour by Knight, who (including her 52 v India in December) has now hit three fifties in as many T20 innings. Believe it or not, prior to that she hadn’t hit a T20 half-century since BC (Before Covid) – February 2020 to be precise – and there were starting to be rumbles, including here at CRICKETher Towers, about whether she should actually still be part of England’s T20 team at all, let alone skippering it. Whatever happens in the next 6 months, she’s now put that question to bed, at least until after the World Cup.

It’s interesting, as well, that Knight has bowled in both these opening matches. England have used her very sparingly with the ball of late, partly due to injury – the last time she sent down overs in back-to-back T20s was actually also in February 2020 – but could it be that they see her as an extra bowling option on those spin-friendly pitches in Bangladesh later this year?

England’s innings showed the value of a long batting line-up: Dean still seems absolutely wasted at No.8, while Glenn – lest we forget – was once touted as a possible T20 opener for England. (Not that they actually need another one of those at the moment!) But England should also count themselves lucky, because a side with even slightly more batting depth than New Zealand would surely have made them pay for some sloppy decisions by the top order.

Syd’s blood pressure gradually RAMPED up (gettit?) as Maia Bouchier, Dean and finally Melie Kerr all perished to a particular shot (ahem).

Melie Kerr’s was perhaps the least forgivable of all – New Zealand needed 50 off 33 balls at the point at which she got out, which was perfectly feasible, and didn’t call for a gung-ho approach.

A continent away, Australia have recently pulled a rabbit out of a hat in their first ODI against Bangladesh – posting 213 after being 112 for 6 – proving that the best teams never say die. New Zealand, by contrast, seem quite happy to wave a white flag at the earliest opportunity. With Kerr back in the dugout, the hosts proceeded to lose a further 4 wickets for 8 runs and the game was done and dusted.

Syd’s Matterhorn tells the story – look at how New Zealand’s line dips under England’s, pretty much straightaway after Kerr’s wicket in the 15th over:

Realistically, New Zealand probably have one more crack at winning a match this series, before England’s four best players return to the XI after their WPL-enforced absence. It doesn’t feel massively likely, does it?

Let’s be honest, this hasn’t been a T20 series either team will look back on with fondness. Following what Syd described in this week’s The CRICKETher Weekly as “the least entertaining T20 ever where 350 runs were scored”, England then almost stuffed up what should have been an easy chase in the second match on Saturday – after India were, embarrassingly, scuttled for 80.

Finally, on Sunday, England were bowled out for 126, in an innings which featured no less than four golden ducks (Maia Bouchier, Dani Gibson, Freya Kemp and Mahika Gaur).

Poor old Bouchier. Her chances to open the batting haven’t exactly come thick and fast for England. Then, when she finally DOES get to do the job, she has to face an on-fire Renuka Singh, who sent down a beauty of a ball which moved off the pitch and snuck through the gate. It shouldn’t count against Bouchier – you can’t do much about a ball like that – but you just sense that a good little innings here would have at least put her in contention as a possible Test opener (now that Emma Lamb is, sadly, back on the plane).

By contrast, it was another dismal effort from Sophia Dunkley, who looked like she was trying to rehearse getting out to Renuka with a huge swing-and-a-miss outside off stump which then turned into a swing-and-a-hit – straight to point. Jon Lewis might want to rethink that second career as an inspirational speaker; because whatever he said to her at his Emergency Bootcamp, it doesn’t seem to have done the trick.

England did eventually post a respectable total of 126, thanks to a 50 partnership off 34 balls between Heather Knight and Charlie Dean for the 9th wicket: the death-phase was by far the most productive of the innings.

There are two schools of thought about Knight’s innings (52 off 42). One is that she showed her younger teammates the “sensible” way to play on this pitch, taking the time to play herself in, before slamming two sixes down the ground in the final over to eventually finish on a healthy strike rate of 124.

The other is that by batting at well below a 100 SR between overs 6 and 18, Knight actually created a situation whereby the younger batters coming in below her felt backed into a corner: they needed to go at a million miles an hour from ball one, partly to complement and partly to counteract Knight’s slower style of play. That’s why you get Gibson exposing her stumps first ball, Bess Heath whipping out the reverse sweep, and Kemp cutting a ball which wasn’t there to be cut.

Sorry, Trev, but I’m afraid I tend towards the latter position.

Either way, it’s hard not to hold Knight partly responsible for being happy to encourage a philosophy (Jon-ball) in which reckless batting is, seemingly, valued above sensible batting. Four golden ducks don’t happen by accident.

After their win in the first T20, a lot of journalists wrote that England had overcome the batting woes which had plagued them against Sri Lanka in September. I wasn’t convinced then; I’m even less convinced now.

And so, with a mere three days to switch mindset, it’s onto the Test match – not the best timing for England. There’s been a lot of talk about it only being four days, instead of the five we enjoyed in the Ashes in June. But if England (and India) carry on batting like they have done over the last few days, it could easily be over in three.

The South-West region might be known as Welsh Fire in The Hundred, but the Women’s Eliminator was sadly curtailed by a Western Storm on Saturday at The Oval, after lightning and then torrential rain forced the players from the field with just 75 balls having been bowled.

Fire had won the toss and chosen to bat first, and somehow endeavoured not to lose a wicket for 45 balls, though Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont got enough chips over the infield to constitute a McDonalds super-sized meal.

But with a soggy outfield slowing up the ball enough to prevent most of those chips going over the boundary rope, they had only 59 on the board by the time Dunkley was caught slogging to deep midwicket.

Hayley Matthews looked like she was competing for the prize of most-inelegant-innings-in-the-competition, managing just one boundary from her 12-ball stay at the crease – an ugly edge over short third – and there was a certain amount of relief all round when she finally sent up a soft catch straight to Phoebe Litchfield at mid-off.

And yet by the time the players were sent off the field Fire were actually in a commanding position, thanks to a 5-ball 14 from Laura Harris. Harris ain’t pretty, but she knows how to get a job done when it’s needed; here, she did her usual bull-in-a-china-shop thing, reverse swivel-pulling her third ball to the boundary before smashing one for six over square leg two balls later. Even better, Tammy Beaumont (going along sedately enough at a run-a-ball 28*) then caught the bug from Harris, and smashed a six of her own.

At 104 for 2 after 75 balls, Fire were approaching the top of the typical “Ghost” score in The Hundred (adjusting for the reduction in balls available).

But with a storm rolling over South London, sadly that was that for Fire’s run in this year’s competition.

It wasn’t the way anyone wanted this team’s run to end, but let’s hope there isn’t too much disappointment in the dressing room tonight: Welsh Fire have done plenty to hold their heads up high. From being the team which nobody wanted to play for, who took the wooden spoon in the 2022 tournament, to a team which handed Southern Brave their first defeat on home soil and hit the highest team AND individual totals in three seasons of the competition… that’s a record to be proud of.

Spare a thought for Alex Hartley, who missed out on selection in what turned out to be her final chance at playing in a professional match – with Matthews now able to bowl again, coach Gareth Breese apparently preferred to go with Emily Windsor as an additional batting option. (Although arguably, it’s perhaps exactly that lack of sentimentality which brought the Fire within touching distance of their first Hundred trophy.)

No one can help the weather, of course… but as I write this, the sun is shining over The Oval, and the men are about to play out a full, 200-ball match in their own Eliminator. One can’t help but feel that there might be a fairer way to allocate the available match time in future years?

For now, the overriding feeling is simple: Welsh Fire Woz Robbed.

Invincibles wrapped up a disappointing 2023 campaign with a thrilling 3-run win against Trent Rockets at The Oval on Monday, after racking up the highest total so far made at the ground in the Women’s Hundred – 155.

Many have been asking what has gone wrong for reigning champions Invincibles this season: despite retaining their core squad from the past two seasons, they had managed just two wins from seven matches prior to this game. The loss of Dane van Niekerk early on certainly hasn’t helped matters.

But on Monday it was her injury replacement Nadine de Klerk who took her chance to shine, striking 51* from 25 balls – the second fastest fifty in the Women’s Hundred (thanks Hypocaust for the stat) – in her first ever match at The Oval.

She was backed up by some beautifully clean six-hitting from Cordelia Griffith (23 off 16), and there was redemption, too, for Sophia Smale, who after a breakthrough season in 2022 has struggled somewhat with “second album syndrome”, but put on an excellent display, taking two for 26 and assisting in the run-out of Fran Wilson as Rockets failed to launch.

Invincibles’ innings was bookended by contrasting spells from left-arm seamer Alexa Stonehouse. Her first two sets reduced the home side to 30 for 2: she swung the ball through the defences of Lauren Winfield-Hill for a duck, before bowling Suzie Bates with a straight one in her next set. Marizanne Kapp then treated her with due respect, playing out three dots.

But at the death, with Stonehouse tasked with sending down balls 91 to 95, de Klerk had no such qualms. “It was hard to play spin and I knew I had to take someone down,” she said afterwards. And so she did. The set of “five” (actually a set of seven, containing two no-balls) began with a head-high full toss which de Klerk slammed for six over deep midwicket, and got worse from there, eventually costing 27 runs.

Not only is it the most expensive set ever bowled in three seasons of the Women’s Hundred, it almost broke Syd’s strike-rate chart!

Stonehouse is considered a future England prospect, but is only 18 years old and could have done with a bit of moral support. It was therefore slightly disappointing to see that none of her teammates (including her captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt) approached her for a quiet “shall-we-think-about-this” word until there were just two balls left in the set (and it was arguably too late to make much difference).

In reply, Lizelle Lee hefted her way to 61 from 33 balls, but Rockets’ chase was almost derailed by the lack of support at the other end. That included a very unconvincing 12-ball 9 from Harmanpreet Kaur, to top off what has been a poor tournament for her (72 runs in six innings). Has she been more affected by her impending two-match suspension in the wake of Bangladesh-Gate than she is letting on?

The match looked to be effectively over when Lee was run out off the 71st ball coming back for a second run by a brilliant direct hit-throwdown of the stumps from bowler Paige Scholfield, who broke out of her follow-through and dashed over to midwicket to retrieve the ball. Being brutally honest, though, it was also a poor call from Jo Gardner. “Maybe at the beginning of my innings that would have been two, but I was a little bit tired,” Lee said ruefully after the match.

There was very nearly a redemption arc for Stonehouse, who – with 18 needed off the final set – struck three boundaries in a row against Scholfield to get the equation down to five needed off the final ball. Finally, though, a good yorker from Scholfield sealed the deal for Invincibles.

De Klerk said after the match that despite spending three months in the UK this summer playing for The Blaze, she had actually been back home in South Africa when the phone call came (midway through a match!) asking if she would consider flying back to play in The Hundred.

“We had a cricket camp for South Africa so it was a bit of chaos to get over here,” she said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Perhaps… although it’s also possible that her innings on Monday will see her snapped up as an overseas star in next year’s competition.

Freya Kemp says that her crucial innings of 41 not out from 21 balls, which took Southern Brave to a 7-wicket win against Oval Invincibles at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday, was inspired by her call-up to the England squad the previous day.

The 18-year-old Kemp featured for England against both South Africa and India last summer, but was ruled out of the T20 World Cup after suffering a stress fracture in her back. She has been unable to bowl in a match this season for either Southern Vipers or Southern Brave.

However, England coach Jon Lewis has shown enough faith in her abilities with the bat to call her up to play purely as a batter in England’s forthcoming internationals against Sri Lanka.

“He [Lewis] called me a few days ago,” Kemp told CRICKETher on Saturday. “It’s good to know that they’re backing me as a batter.”

“[It inspired me] subconsciously – I went out there and was clear about my plans, and that helped me.”

Kemp added that there was no fixed date for her return with the ball, but said her comeback was progressing smoothly:

“I’m just working on my action and building up my overs. It’s a slow build-up but it’s going really well.”

Imagine for a second how it feels to be Dane van Niekerk right now.

After a difficult few months in which you were prevented from playing in a home World Cup due to an arbitrary fitness target, you’re finally ready to burst back onto the scene by leading Oval Invincibles’ title defence.

Then, in your team’s match against Manchester Originals, you suffer a nasty blow to your thumb. On Sunday, you are ruled out of the rest of The Hundred after scans reveal that the thumb injury will require surgery to fix.

On Monday, you discover (via ESPNCricinfo) that Cricket South Africa have decided to abolish the fitness standard which brought about your premature retirement from international cricket.

There is one silver lining: you can stay with Invincibles for the duration of the tournament. Tuesday comes around, and it’s time for their match v London Spirit – a local derby which Invincibles have never lost. You participate in the team talk pre-match, imparting some of that famous tactical wisdom which you are known for.

Something you AREN’T known for is being a good watcher of cricket. But that’s OK, because your replacement skipper Suzie Bates has decided that your wife, Marizanne Kapp, should bowl all her deliveries in the opening 35 balls of the match.

You watch her take two wickets for 13 runs in her allotted 20 balls, including bowling poor Niamh Holland in her opening set, with a beauty which the 18-year-old had no idea what to do with.

You are left pondering about Heather Knight’s bizarre decision to promote Holland to face your wife at the top of the order, while omitting Grace Scrivens from the XI – despite the fact that Scrivens regularly opens for her region (you are well aware of this, being her captain at Sunrisers), and Holland does not.

Minutes later, two Spirit players are “having words” with each other mid-pitch after a dopey run-out, while your wife does the nearest thing she ever does on the pitch to smiling. Eventually, London Spirit sink to 87 for 9 after 78 balls. You nod to yourself, satisfied. Invincibles have this in the bag.

Except, two hours later – after a 10th-wicket partnership of 31 in 22 balls between Lauren Filer and Tara Norris; and a powerplay in which Invincibles manage to put just 23 runs on the board – it turns out they didn’t.

It’s Tuesday evening, and you could, should, have been celebrating. Instead, your side’s title defence is slipping through your fingers (Invincibles sit fourth in the table but have only a 3% chance of qualifying for the knockouts) – and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

After Oval Invincibles lost to London Spirit on a balmy Tuesday afternoon at The Oval by 22 runs, I asked Sophia Smale what van Niekerk would be saying to her teammates in the post-match dressing-room review. “How did we lose it, probably!” came the reply.

Dane van Niekerk has undoubtedly had better weeks.

Sunrisers continued their winless start to the 2023 Charlotte Edwards Cup with a four-wicket defeat to local rivals South East Stars – a disappointing end to their first ever fixture at Lord’s.

Set a target of 133, Stars looked to be cruising along, adding 61 runs in the powerplay. Bryony Smith continued her form from Tuesday’s match against Vipers (when she struck 83), while Alice Capsey made an exhilarating return to the side, smashing 24 from 10 balls including some glorious aerial drives.

The pair added 30 runs in just 2 overs, but Capsey was out in the seventh, falling to a very good catch from Mady Villiers, diving forwards at long on.

Smith survived a couple of difficult caught-and-bowled chances from Villiers and Abtaha Maqsood to reach 38 from 27, finally holing out to deep midwicket in the 12th.

Stars continued to lose wickets at the back end, including two in the 16th over to Grace Scrivens, who appeared very much to be directing on-field proceedings, having regular conversations with Dane van Niekerk between balls.

But a calm innings from Phoebe Franklin (30 off 36), and a final boundary punched hard through point by Kira Chathli, finished the job with an over to spare.

Sunrisers had rejigged their batting line-up after defeat to Central Sparks at Chelmsford a week ago, with van Niekerk making her long-waited debut for the side, while Villiers was promoted to open alongside the South African.

The pair added 32 for the first wicket – though van Niekerk was put down twice in Phoebe Franklin’s opening over – but could not build enough of a platform to take Sunrisers to a winning total.

Paige Scholfield made the initial breakthrough in the fifth over, as van Niekerk’s wild swing found air and she was bowled, before Villiers bottom-edged onto her own stumps two overs later.

Sunrisers then sunk from 40 for 2 to 64 for 6, thanks partly to some atrocious running between the wickets. Scrivens was undone by a poor call from Cordelia Griffith and a piece of good fortune – Chathli fumbled the throw-in from Bryony Smith at midwicket, but the ball ricocheted off her foot and dislodged the bails anyway.

Griffith was then involved in an extraordinary mix-up with Amara Carr, which saw the two batters almost collide halfway down the wicket. Carr had to make an emergency diversion around Griffith, and was run out at the non-strikers end.

An unsettled-looking Griffith holed out to Tash Farrant at deep square leg two overs later.

It looked like humiliation for Sunrisers, until Jo Gardner and Eva Gray ensured their team at least made a decent fist of it, with a partnership of 48 for the seventh wicket, which lifted the home side above 100.

But Gardner ultimately became the third run-out victim of the innings, coming down the track from the non-strikers end while Gray remained firmly in her crease.

Sunrisers have work to do before their bottom-of-the-table clash against Thunder on Saturday.