Stars top-scorer Alice Capsey hit a personal best 71 runs, scored from 48 balls, scoring half Stars total under t-20 conditions. When Diamonds replied, Hollie Armitage played her best skipper’s innings to date, scoring more than half of the runs required with top-score of 82 runs scored from 59 balls. Once Hollie Armitage lost her wicket with the end in sight, bowler-turned-batter Lizzy Scott held her nerve hitting ‘four’ to clinch a last-ball win. Third straight victory for Diamonds, wearing their new light-blue strip. Previously, Yorks CCC president Dr Jane Powell had told viewers that Diamonds’ T20 shirts were etched with names of 152 affiliated women’s and girl’s clubs across Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland:- please see below. Video highlights from ECB online (NV Play) with fixed cameras but without recorded commentary. Weather was glorious, with blue sky.
Stars innings *Skipper Bryony Smith. *England’s Sophia Dunkley & Alice Davidson-Richards. *Debutante Claudie Cooper. *Without Aylish Cranstone and Ryana Macdonald-Gay. *Stars lost three wickets to carbon-copy dismissals during the Power-play. *Sophia Dunkley 12(10) swept Grace Hall’s 3rd ball leg-side, caught by Chloe Tryon. *Bryony Smith 14(14) swept Chloe Tryon leg-side, caught by Grace Hall. *Left-hander Tash Farrant 2(7) swept Lizzy Scott to ‘deep square,’ caught by Leah Dobson. *After six overs PowerPlay, Stars were 33/3, and 50/3 by midway. *Bowling the 14th over, Katie Levick sent Phoebe Franklin’s 11(17) off-side bale flying. *Paige Scholfield 6(5) hooked Grace Hall to ’square-leg,’ caught by Leah Dobson. *Starting the last 5 overs, Alice Davidson-Richards 8 hooked Grace Hall to ’square-leg,’ caught by Abi Glen. *After 100 balls (16.4overs) Stars were 107/5 with 20 balls remaining. *Alice Capsey top-scored with 71(48) until lofting down-wicket to Chloe Tryon at ‘long-on’ from Abi Glen. Kira Chathli 3*(4) & Freya Davies 8*(3) were ’not out.’ *Diamonds bowler Grace Hall 3/20 was best bowler taking 3 of Stars’ best batters wickets (Sophia Dunkley, Paige Scholfield and Alice Davidson-Richards.)
Diamonds innings *Skipper Hollie Armitage. Kira Chathli keeping wicket for Stars.*England u-19 seamer Lizzy Scott. *Diamonds International players Chloe Tryon (Rep. South Africa) Sterre Kalis (NL) and Scotland’s Katherine Fraser. *Both openers went during the first-half of the PowerPlay. *Leah Dobson 1(1) was ‘run out’ by Freya Davies’ direct hit, from Claudie Cooper’s 4th ball. *Lauren Winfield-Hill 1(6) was caught by Alice Capsey around deep mid-wicket during Claudie Cooper’s 2nd over. *After 6 overs Power-play, Diamonds were 32/2 (vs 33/3). *Bowler rotation tactics unsettled Sterre Kalis 18(17), clean-bowled through-the-gate by Danielle Gregory. *Diamonds were 60/3 (vs 50/3) by mid-way. *Bess Heath 19 (18) reverse-swept to Alice Capsey at ’short third’ from Claudie Cooper. *Returning to bowl the 15th over, Claudie Cooper’s 3rd ball had Chloe Tryon losing her footing and was stumped by Kira Chathli. *After 100 balls (16.4ov) Diamonds were 113/5 (vs 107/5) with 20 balls remaining. *Two late Diamonds wickets fell when Freya Davies (1/30) returned. *Firstly, Katherine Fraser was ‘run out’ by Sophia Dunkley’s return throw to Freya Davies at the bowler’s end, once Freya Davies broke the stumps.*Secondly, skipper Armitage 82(59) was stumped by keeper Kira Chathli, momentarily stranded when over-reaching wide of her off-stump. *Finally, Abi Glen was caught behind, wide of off-stump by keeper Chathli, from Alice Davidson-Richards (1/23) *Lizzy Scott scored the winning ‘four’ from the final match ball. *Stars bowler Claudie Cooper (3/12) was best bowler taking 3 of Diamonds’ best batters wickets (Lauren Winfield-Hill, Bess Heath & Chloe Tryon.)
Match summary: Closely contested match, from the moment that both teams lost their opening batting pairs during six overs PowerPlay. Both teams’ top-batters (England’s Alice Capsey for Stars and skipper Hollie Armitage for Diamonds): hit personal bests and scored more than half of their team’s totals. Batters with highest batting-averages from each side went for single-figures (Paige Scholfield – Stars; and Lauren Winfield-Hill – Diamonds.) Also, both sides best bowlers took 3 wickets each (debutante Claudie Cooper for Stars and Grace Hall for Diamonds.) At the 100 ball (16.4ov) benchmark, both sides had lost 5 wickets with 20 balls remaining. As mentioned above, Lizzy Scott held her nerve hitting ‘four’ to clinch a last-ball win.
Match result: Northern Diamonds Women 140/8 beat South East Stars Women 138/7 by two wickets.
Stars batting: 138/7 (20/20 overs @ 6.9 runs-per-over) Alice Capsey 71(48), Bryony Smith 14(14), Sophia Dunkley 12(10); Phoebe Franklin 11(17); Diamonds bowling: Grace Hall 3/20, Lizzy Scott 1/11, Katie Levick 1/29,Chloe Tryon 1/31, Abi Glen 1/35; Fow 1-22, 2-28, 3-33, 4-76, 5-94, 6-126, 7-129.
Diamonds batting: 140/8 (20/20 overs, 7 runs-per-over) Hollie Armitage 82(59), Bess Heath 19(18), Sterre Kalis 18(17); Stars bowling: Claudie Cooper 3/12, Freya Davies 1/30, Alice Davidson-Richards 1/23, Bryony Smith 1/17. Fow 1-2, 2-6, 3-55, 4-93, 5-113, 6-121 7-131, 8-133.
Scorecard with video highlights, courtesy of ECB via NV Play on YouTube at URL: https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/#cdc38bf13-4f50-4dde-b543-741109226324_m6a69b4a5-286c-4240-956b-4f9753d244b9_~scorecard
Full video with fixed cameras without commentary starting from 14m25s/2h38m50s; (nb: cutting out when Hollie Armitage reaches 50); courtesy of South East Stars on YouTube at URL at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC4QgRsg8lA
Katie Levick modelling Diamonds T20 shirt at URL: https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/3414065/every-local-club-featured-in-new-yorkshire-and-northern-diamonds-kit
Diamonds awarded 4 points. Latest England and Wales Cricket Board tables at URL: https://www.ecb.co.uk/matches/womens-t20/table
