In their previous KSL game, against the Diamonds, Southern Vipers fell agonisingly short in their run chase, reaching 163-9 after Diamonds had racked up 175-5. It was the highest ever aggregate score in a KSL match, but it was the Vipers who were on the wrong end of the result.

Today, with Loughborough Lightning needing 11 runs off the final over and Suzie Bates tasked with bowling it, you’d probably have had your money on Vipers to defend their substantial 172-run total. Nonetheless it was Lightning who triumphed, Elyse Villani’s six finishing things off with two balls to spare.

With just 1 win in their 6 opening matches, and Finals Day now all but out of reach*, some have questioned whether something has “gone wrong” for Vipers this season, and asked when they might start putting in the performances that would enable them to turn things around. In actuality, this is a side who have now put in two consecutive match-winning performances, but haven’t won either contest. T20 is a format of the game that can hang on the way the cards fall: and sometimes the luck just doesn’t go your way.

Today, after Sara McGlashan and Arran Brindle’s 71-run partnership ensured a strong finish to their innings, it definitely felt at the halfway stage that Vipers had their fangs into their opponents. Then, after Lightning had motored away to reach 100 in the 11th over with only 2 wickets down, it felt again that things had swung back in Vipers’ favour – Brindle making the crucial breakthrough to have the in-form batsman Rachael Haynes caught at point, just after reaching her half century.

But somebody at Vipers has clearly offended the cricketing gods. Two balls after the Haynes wicket Villani (who went on to reach 61*) was inches away from being run out; but survived by the skin of her teeth. Then, coming back to bowl her next over, Brindle was forced to leave the field one ball in after Georgia Elwiss pelted the ball straight back through her hands – Brindle dislocating a finger in her attempt to take the return catch. Finally, with Fi Morris beginning the following over, Tash Farrant dived to save a boundary at deep backward square and couldn’t get back up again. She eventually left the pitch with the help of medical staff, appearing to have dislocated her shoulder.

With 2 sub fielders brought on, Vipers were still in with a chance, especially while Lightning proceeded to throw away several more wickets – Elwiss run out; Georgia Adams and Jenny Gunn holing out and caught in the deep when singles would have sufficed – but Villani, fortunately for her team, kept a cool head.

And so Lightning continue what looks to be their inevitable charge towards Finals Day, in a performance that has surprised everyone. But maybe luck has played a role there as well? It was only two months ago that we found out that Ellyse Perry had dropped out of this year’s KSL. Her very-last-minute replacement? None other than the heroine of the hour, Elyse Villani…

*We think it is still mathematically possible for Vipers to reach Finals Day, but it would rely on several matches being rained off and all other results going their way.

The rain that fell in Taunton overnight and this morning may have negatively affected Sky’s coverage – those of us watching at home suffered no commentary for the first 3 overs and very poor image quality throughout – but it did set up an ideal game situation for Western Storm. Of all the teams in the competition, they have the batting firepower to flourish in a 6-over situation, and so it proved. Lightning fans can probably rightly feel slightly aggrieved that they haven’t had the chance to prove themselves properly against the defending champions.

For Storm, Smriti Mandhana is proving to have been a genius overseas “buy”, with 137 runs off 60 balls in the first 3 matches at a breathtaking strike rate of 228. A couple of stats from Hypocaust support the point:

By contrast the conservative batting of Rachael Haynes (who finished with 18 off 15 balls) ultimately cost Lightning the game. Going at a run a ball was never going to be enough in this situation. One almost felt that Lightning had lost the match before they even started their innings – Haynes isn’t known for her power-hitting and to see her walking out and even facing the first ball ahead of partner Sophie Devine smacked of uber-conservative decision-making. Devine did her damnedest, but even she couldn’t make the runs alone.

For Storm, credit should go to fast bowler Freya Davies, who captain Heather Knight entrusted with bowling 2 of their 6 overs. That trust was repaid handsomely – Davies kept it tight, and by conceding only 9 runs from her first over, turned the game hugely in Storm’s favour: one over like that and Lightning’s chances of chasing down the runs were already greatly reduced.

Finally, if you haven’t already, do have a watch of our review of week 1 of the KSL, recorded just before this match took place.

Before today, in the 2 years since the Kia Super League was launched, Southern Vipers had never been bowled out. Now they have; and all the talk pre-competition about their strong batting line-up suddenly sounds rather hollow.

The demeanour of Tammy Beaumont in the post-match interview certainly suggested that this was a match her side expected to win. “It’s quite frustrating to lose this game tonight,” she admitted. “It’s a tough one to take.”

Beaumont was clear about what went wrong. Steering away from blaming dropped catches (both Elyse Villani and Amy Jones were dropped when on 20*) or tight run-out chances (a third-umpire review saving Jones after a Bates direct hit), Beaumont said, simply: “Getting bowled out for 105 cost us the game.”

Her description of it as “a naive batting performance” just about summed it up. From an England perspective Danni Wyatt’s continuing weakness against spin – once again she was dismissed caught on the ring – will be a concern ahead of the WWT20. A bigger, more immediate problem for Vipers is Suzie Bates’ slump in form, which has come at the worst possible time for them, and culminated today in her first ever duck in either KSL or WBBL. Whether Vipers can make Finals Day will likely depend on whether she can recover some semblance of her usual prowess with the bat over the next couple of weeks.

Amy Jones, meanwhile, praised the performance of Lightning’s younger players, who she said had “really stepped up in the first 2 games”. In particular credit should go to 18-year-old Sarah Glenn, whose economy rate of 3.50 was far and away the best of all the Lightning bowlers, an important feat in a game that could have been much closer than it was, had just 15 more runs been added by Vipers.

Lightning’s run chase was, as it transpired, relatively straightforward. Though Amelia Kerr was dazzlingly brilliant – her 4 overs (2 of which were bowled in the powerplay) going for just 6 runs and her variations tying both Amy Jones and Elyse Villani in knots – the required run rate never rose above 6 an over. “We didn’t have to force anything, which allowed us to just see her off and then take advantage of some of the other bowlers,” Jones said.

And so it’s Lightning, not Vipers, who go 2 from 2; and Lightning who have now bowled out both the sides they have faced in the competition. We predicted a mid-table finish for them, but maybe we’ve underestimated Loughborough Lightning?

Amy Jones definitely thinks so. “We’ve got a really good squad and our younger players have really stepped up in the first 2 games. We should be a contender [for the title].”

After tonight, it’s hard to disagree.

At the start of this match, as Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine walked out to open the batting, I thought it rather odd that they hadn’t chosen to mix up the batting order. With 2 openers on fire and the rest of the line-up distinctly under-cooked, why not give the middle order an outing ahead of Sunday’s final?

As it turned out, the batting order didn’t matter a jot.

There are two wrong ways to approach T20 cricket. The first is to do as Laura Wolvaardt and Dane van Niekerk did earlier today and form a partnership where, while you might manage to hang around, neither of you is able to bat at a strike rate of anything like 100. The second is to bosh it all over, but get yourselves out. New Zealand became masters of the second approach today.

On 64-2, halfway through their innings and with the lean, mean fighting machine that is Sophie Devine unbeaten at one end, what New Zealand really needed was for a measured, mature approach to batting at the other. What they got was a middle order that, after Amy Satterthwaite fell victim to Katie George’s full, straight slower ball, collapsed in a heap – their last 7 wickets falling for 38 runs.

England fielded like tigresses – the highlights another stumping to add to Sarah “Legside” Taylor’s showreel; and two absolutely outstanding catches in the deep by Amy Jones off the bowling of Anya Shrubsole, Jones diving forwards both times to snatch the ball out of the air.

But New Zealand displayed a recklessness that England were able to take advantage of: slogging when they needed to defend; sweeping when they needed to play straight. Instead of letting Devine field the strike, they tried and failed to do her job for her.

Meanwhile Devine, who had said at the halfway point that a par score on this pitch was 150, looked on from the other end in disbelief.

“We just didn’t have enough batters that played smart enough cricket there with Sophie at the end,” Suzie Bates told us after the match. “She knew she could put her foot down and accelerate the innings but partners didn’t stick with her. It made it difficult for Sophie to kick on – she was caught in 2 minds which is never easy.”

Were they tired after that first game v South Africa? “It wasn’t about being tired – it just wasn’t clinical cricket. We play 50 over cricket and we’ve trained hard for this. I just don’t think we were smart enough.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s final, Bates was upbeat:

“We can only get better after that second effort today! We’ve got to take what we did against South Africa and do it for longer.”

But the ease with which England chased down the required runs – a beautiful half-century from Sarah Taylor, plus unbeaten contributions from Nat Sciver and Heather Knight, as England’s middle-order did what New Zealand’s had failed to do and steadied the ship – surely suggests that a win for the home side at Chelmsford is the most likely result, come the weekend.

Sussex put in two convincing performances in the third round of the T20 Cup at Edgbaston Foundation Ground, beating both Warwickshire and Lancashire as Freya Davies took 4-8, the best ever T20 bowling performance by a Sussex player.

Meanwhile Warwickshire kept themselves in contention for the trophy by beating Lancashire, Becky Grundy taking 4-14 and Ria Fackrell top-scoring with 37.

Warwickshire v Sussex

In the first match of the day, Sussex bowled Warwickshire out for 67 to win by 42 runs, despite being a bowler short.

Sussex had racked up 109 runs in their 20 overs, making the most of the powerplay as Georgia Adams (32) and Izzy Collis (19) hit 8 boundaries between them.

Both eventually fell victim to Becky Grundy (4-10) but Sussex continued to battle hard, with Linsey Smith struggling on through injury to reach 26, Paige Scholfield doing an excellent job as her runner – a situation as unfamiliar to the players at this level as it was to us watching on from the boundary.

The injury left Smith unable to bowl, however, putting pressure on opening bowlers Freya Davies and Chiara Green to strike early.

Davies rose to the challenge, not giving an inch as her first 2-over spell yielded 2 wickets for 7 runs, including inducing a feather edge from Millie Home to Abi Freeborn behind the stumps.

Green then chipped in with 2 wickets of her own, including that of the dangerous-looking Ria Fackrell, bowled for 26.

Meanwhile captain Georgia Adams (3-9) also contributed with the ball, decimating Warwickshire’s middle order despite having barely bowled a ball all season.

It was Davies, though, who wrapped things up in the 17th over with the final 2 wickets, finishing with incredible figures of 4-8.

Sussex v Lancashire

Lancashire’s opening partnership of Eve Jones and Emma Lamb has been crucial to them this season, but after putting Lancashire in to bat it was Sussex that got the early breakthrough in the second over, as Jones was bowled by Chiara Green for 4.

This brought Danielle Collins to the crease, but she didn’t last long either – edging a rising ball from Freya Davies to Abi Freeborn behind the stumps for 8.

Emma Lamb found the boundary twice with a couple of powerful strokes before giving up her wicket in rather tame fashion on 11, dinking Beth Harvey straight to Davies at square leg, to leave Lancashire 25-3.

With Nancy Harman accounting for Kate Cross, bowled for 5, Lancashire looked in danger of disintegrating, but Ellie Threlkeld and Natalie Brown (21) restored some credibility to the scorebook with a stand of 40 before Brown hit a big hoik down to cow corner where she was well caught by Tara Norris running round from long on.

Threlkeld finished 41* as Lancashire closed on 109-6.

After her remarkable debut last weekend, young left-arm seamer Millie Hodge opened the bowling for Lancashire, going for consecutive boundaries off her first 2 balls to Georgia Adams, before Adams survived a big appeal for a stumping off the third.

At the other end, Kate Cross ran in hard to clean bowl Paige Scholfield in her first over, but by her third over was starting to leak runs as Izzy Collis paddled successive leg-side deliveries for 4.

At the halfway mark Sussex were well-placed at 67-1, with Adams on 40* and Collis on 21* – both batsmen reaping the rewards of hitting up and over the ring. The pair cruised on, Adams passing 50 in the 13th over.

Lancashire brought Kate Cross back for her final over to try to break the partnership, but it proved to be a futile last throw of the dice.

Four leg-byes off Adams’ toe in the next over from Natalie Brown brought a cry of “Unbelievable!” from the bowler which could be heard on the boundary (and we suspect well beyond!), and which rather summed things up from a Lancashire perspective. This was not a match they should have lost by 9 wickets… and they didn’t, as Adams was caught for 61 with the scores level, the match ending when Brown sent the next ball wide, to gift Sussex an 8-wicket victory and 2-from-2 for the day.

Warwickshire v Lancashire

The Warwickshire top order fought back hard in the final game of the day with their top 3 all making scores – Gwenan Davies 34, Ria Fackrell 37 and Milly Home 25 – as they beat Lancashire by 26 runs.

Chasing 126, Lancashire lost in-form Eve Jones early, run out in the 3rd over trying for a quick single by a direct hit from Georgia Davis at mid on.

Emma Lamb initially looked as if she might make the required runs on her own, as she raced to 30* after 7 overs, with her side’s total at that point 38-3.

But once again Davis proved her worth in the field, taking an excellent catch at midwicket to dismiss Lamb. Congratulating her afterwards, one spectator described it as “the catch that won the match” – it’s hard to disagree.

It was left to Becky Grundy to dismantle the Lancashire middle order, finishing with figures of 4-14 across her 4 overs; and though Nalisha Patel and Millie Hodge put on an impressive 32-run partnership for the 9th wicket and were both unbeaten at the end, they ultimately fell way short of the total.

Having won the toss and chosen to bat, Davies and Fackrell had set the foundation for Warwickshire up top, putting on 58 for the first wicket in the first 10 overs as they pushed hard to rotate the strike.

After Davies was caught by Kate Cross at mid on off Laura Jackson’s first ball of the innings, Fackrell and Home then rode their luck – the Lancashire fielders putting down several catches – to take the score past 100.

Lancashire pegged them back in the final few overs, taking 3 quick wickets as Kate Cross – released from England duty – finished with 1-24 and a run out to her name; but 126 looked an imposing total, and so it proved.

After Wednesday, this was the match that we all wanted to see: the titans v the titans.

For the home crowd at Taunton, it didn’t disappoint. For the neutral, though, it ended up somewhat undercooked.

From an England perspective the biggest positive was the way in which they picked themselves up after defeat to South Africa earlier in the day. They could so easily have been down-and-out psychologically; but whatever Mark Robinson said to them after the first game clearly worked its magic. “The team showed a lot of character,” reflected Player of the Match Sophie Ecclestone after play.

None showed it more than Ecclestone, who was the standout star. Once again she was belted for runs by Lizelle Lee in the first match of the day; once again she came back stronger, ending with 2 wickets in her final over.

Then, against New Zealand she was steely-calm, starting off with a maiden that forced the wicket of the dangerous Suzie Bates in the following over; and coming back in her second over to break the Katey Martin-Maddie Green partnership; before finishing off the New Zealand tail to finish with 4-18.

But it was perhaps with the bat that she did the most important job.

Tammy Beaumont, speaking in the break between the games, had been clear what England needed to do on this pitch: “165 / 170 is par.” It might have slowed down a little since Wednesday; but not that much. Earlier in the day against South Africa, 160 had simply not been enough.

When England lost 3 wickets in the space of 6 balls in the 17th and 18th overs, leaving them 140-7, “par” looked a way off.

But by the end of the innings you ended up wondering what you’d been worrying about – across the last 3 overs, Anya Shrubsole and Ecclestone (plus a brief cameo from Dani Hazell) between them added 32 runs, England finishing on 172-8.

While it’s been a hallmark of this England side that they bat deep, “genuine number 12” Sophie Ecclestone (to coin a Don Miles phrase) was hardly the player you would have expected to punish Sophie Devine for four.

And the sight of Anya Shrubsole sending Leigh Kasperek over the top for the only maximum of the innings was equally unexpected.

“If we’d kept them under 160 the momentum would have been in our favour,” reflected Suzie Bates after the game. It wasn’t; and more to the point it put the pressure on the Kiwi top order, right from the outset. Bates summed it up: “When you are chasing over 10 an over it makes any bowler look better.”

Afterwards, Ecclestone reflected on her innings in a succinct but apt manner: “I love batting! To get out there and give it a whack is fun to do.”

Coach Mark Robinson, whose mantra as coach has been “go out and bat with freedom”, should be very, very proud of his young protege.

The South Africans have just been punished for over 450 runs in a day, as first New Zealand and then England broke the record T20 totals, but Laura Wolvaardt has bigger things on her mind as we meet her on a sunny day in Taunton.

“By the end of the year I have to decide whether I’m going to start with a medicine degree or continue with cricket,” she says.

The South African opener made her debut in February 2016 against England, having been catapulted into the national side aged just 16. “It did happen a bit quickly,” she tells us. “I went to 1 or 2 national camps and then I went on my first tour.” Asked whether she missed out on a “normal” teenage life she says: “I was never the major party type in high school. I like my life how it is now. My friends are my teammates.”

Since that debut Wolvaardt has already made waves on the international scene. Against Ireland in July 2016 she became the youngest ever centurion for South Africa, male or female – we were there to see her maiden international century – and she hit a half-century for her side in last summer’s World Cup semi-final, a match South Africa ultimately lost to England.

Reflecting on that game Wolvaardt describes the memory as “bittersweet. We got so close and you think about all the what could have beens. We could have played that final and played at Lords and who knows what could have happened then? But I try to move forwards and not dwell on that too much.”

(Photo copyright Don Miles)

More recently she enjoyed a stint playing for Brisbane Heat in the WBBL, which she describes as an “amazing experience. We were treated just like the men’s sides and there were crowds at the games.”

“It was the first time I left home by myself for longer than a few weeks. It was weird playing in a new environment at first but I made friends there quite quickly. The people were super-friendly and my team mates were great so I fitted right in. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected.”

It was all part of her ambition to develop her T20 game. Wolvaardt is a natural in the longer formats – oh that South Africa might yet play another women’s Test – but her style is less suited to the mile-a-minute pace of Twenty20. What exactly has she been working on? “It’s all about more options -getting more shots into my game, and getting that strike rate up.”

And yet it might all be in vain as the biggest decision of her life awaits.

The 19 year old finished school last year but agreed with Stellenbosch University that she could interrupt her studies for 12 months before commencing her medical degree. However, Wolvaardt says that it will probably not be possible to continue holding the place beyond one year.

So what are her options?

“I could decline the medicine and play cricket for a few years, but if I want to study medicine I’d have to reapply, and it’s always a bit of a risk because it’s very difficult to get in back home, so once it’s there you don’t really want to give your spot away.”

“I could study a BSc in Medical Sciences or something while I’m playing cricket, to keep me busy.”

“Or I start medicine next year and I try to juggle the cricket. I don’t think we have that many tours next year so maybe it could work out, and then I could try and postpone again. But I don’t know if they’d let me.”

“I don’t think there’s a way that I can do the full 6 years of medicine right now and play full-on cricket as well. Second year medicine is pretty hectic.”

“Medicine has always been the dream. And I have to think about after cricket, because if I study something else than that’s what I’m going to do when I’m 30.”

“I don’t know,” she concludes. “I don’t know.”

The dilemma is enhanced by the fact that, compared with countries like England and Australia, earnings through cricket are still lagging behind. The new MOU currently being negotiated by Cricket South Africa is intended to go some way to closing this gap but as yet the outcome remains unclear.

For the CSA administrators they need look no further than Laura Wolvaardt to understand what is really at stake in those negotiations. Because what seems clear is that, even in this era of increased professionalisation, our sport is at risk of losing some of its brightest stars. There is no better or more powerful argument for equitable pay.

The second day of the England v New Zealand v South Africa T20 tri-series takes place at Taunton on Saturday, and Sky Sports and the Women’s Sport Trust are joining forces with the ECB to encourage people to #ShowUp and sell out the fixture.

CRICKETher understands that the Taunton matches on Saturday are already nearly sold out, but advance tickets are still currently available from the Somerset CC website, priced at just £10 per adult ticket for the whole day and £1 for children under 19.

The Sky Sports Cricket channel is also dedicating the whole day to women’s cricket programming, beginning at 6am and going through until 9.20pm. Live coverage of the first T20 between England and and South Africa begins at 12.30pm.

The day forms part of the #ShowUp campaign, launched earlier this summer by Sky Sports and the Women’s Sport Trust to encourage more people to watch, attend and play women’s sport. Jo Bostock and Tammy Parlour, Co-Founders of the WST, have described the aim of the campaign has helping to “prove the value and appeal of women’s sport. It is the ultimate expression of people power.”

If you’ll be at the ground or watching on TV then do use the hashtag #ShowUp. We’d love to see you there!

This game wasn’t billed as the big occasion. On Saturday they are expecting a full house at Taunton; today, we had about 1600 people in to watch the first game of the double-header. The press box was almost empty when the game started. But we were here – and it was worth it.

New Zealand have made waves against Ireland in the last few weeks, but this was different. “We’ve got to be better than we’ve been against the top teams,” Suzie Bates told me when I spoke to her at the weekend. South Africa fall into that category. In Kapp and Ismail they probably have the best pace attack in the world.

Today, New Zealand took them to pieces.

Shabnim Ismail went for 18 off her first over. Raisibe Ntozakhe’s first ball of the day was punished over midwicket for the 50th six of Sophie Devine’s career. Marizanne Kapp had been economical up top; such was Bates’ eye in by the end of the innings that even she was punished with a six in the final over.

“Bates and Devine are seeing the ball like a watermelon,” said Dane van Niekerk after the match. “The striking is unbelievable. They are smacking it so hard at the moment.”

A few years ago South Africa’s final total of 150 would have been plenty to see them over the line. Not any more. Women’s T20 is changing, and New Zealand are at the forefront of that charge.

After the game, Bates talked about a “brand” of cricket: “You can sometimes fall short and not reach it, but with the type of players that we have, you have to encourage playing like that [brand].”

Today wasn’t just about one game of cricket. The White Ferns are setting down a marker. In Bates and Devine they have the most mouthwatering opening partnership in world cricket. Amelia Kerr is fresh from hitting a double century; we didn’t even get to see her or Amy Satterthwaite bat today. One of the best T20 batsmen in the world, Rachel Priest, cannot even make it into this squad.

If T20 is a batsman’s game then it is New Zealand, surely, who must be favourites to take home that T20 trophy come November. And it was today that their campaign really started.

Today was a day of records. Suzie Bates’ first century in T20Is. Bates overtaking Charlotte Edwards record for most career runs in T20Is. And of course the record score in women’s T20Is.

We were lucky to be there to see it.