The Blaze vs South East Stars at Derby on 22 June 2024 at 16h00
The Blaze become the third team to hold the trophy; previously won by Southern Vipers (2022 & 2023) & South East Stars (2021). Commentators pointed out that their fellow finalists included familiar faces who’d previously won the trophy. After Stars openers plundered 22 runs from the first over, that became the ‘most expensive’ over in the competition’s short history. Their in-form batters Sophia Dunkley and Paige Schofield were both snapped-up by Blaze & Scotland’s keeper Sarah Bryce, who made carbon-copy stumpings. Match highlight when Blaze replied, was a decisive partnership of 79 runs between Kathryn & Sarah Bryce, both sisters posting match-winning ‘fifties.’ POTM, Kathryn Bryce (pictured) [62 runs (from 45 balls)] made top-score, also topping the batting leader-board with 477 runs as player-of-the-series ‘POTS’ with five ‘fifties.’ Having recently replaced Nadine de Klerk as Blaze’s International player, Heather Graham (Australia Big bash) scored the winning ‘four.’ Receiving POTS, Kathryn Bryce said that everyone had ‘stood-up’ (played their part); notably a ‘key’ success factor for Blaze. Finals-day commentators were Charles Dagnall (Broadcaster & former player), Michael McCann (Sports journalist), Jo Gardner (Sunrisers), Sophie Luff (Western Storm) & Fi Morris (Lancashire Thunder.) Weather was sunny 17C.
*Stars’ innings skipper Bryony Smith, with Tash Farrant, Ryana MacDonald-Gay & Paige Scholfield (England ‘A’); Sophia Dunkley & Alice-Davidson-Richards (England), Tilly Corteen-Coleman (England u-19s); Georgia Redmayne (Australia Big bash);*Also with Phoebe Franklin, Danielle ‘Dani’ Gregory & Kalea Moore; *Without Alice Capsey, Kira Chathli, Aylish Cranstone, Chloe Hill or Alexa Stonehouse [*Sarah Bryce keeping wicket for Blaze]; *As mentioned above, Stars openers Bryony Smith and Sophia Dunkley plundered 22 runs from Grace Ballinger’s first over; *Next over, skipper Bryony Smith went ‘leg-before’ to her opposite number, skipper Kirstie Gordon; *During the sixth over Phoebe Franklin was bowled by Heather Graham; *After six overs ‘power-play,’ 46/2; *Next over Sophia Dunkley was stumped by Sarah Bryce from Josie Groves; *Two overs later, Paige Scholfield went for a ‘carbon-copy’ dismissal; *At which point commentators felt that Stars were ‘in a pickle’ approaching mid-way. *After 10 overs: 73/4; *Emma Jones who ‘played a cameo’ was bowled ‘leg-stump’ by Heather Graham; *During the 15th over, Alice-Davidson-Richards was caught by Marie Kelly from Josie Groves; *Three wickets fell during each of the last three overs; *Georgia Redmayne was caught ‘easily’ at ‘mid-off’ by Kirstie Gordon from Kathryn Bryce; *Tash Farrant was caught with an ‘excellent’ catch taken by Kathryn Bryce from Kirstie Gordon’s ‘full-toss’ ; *Finally, Dani Gregory was bowled, losing her leg-stump bail to Heather Graham; *Stars’ batting: Georgia Redmayne 25(25), Alice-Davidson-Richards 21(12), Emma Jones 18(15), Bryony Smith 17(8), Sophia Dunkley 16(14), Phoebe Franklin 10(16); *Blaze bowling: Heather Graham 3/16, Josie Groves 3/33, Kirstie Gordon 2/21, Kathryn Bryce 1/13 ;
Blaze’s innings *Skipper Kirstie Gordon (England A) *With Tammy Beaumont (England); *Lucy Higham (England A) *Josie Groves (England u-19s) *Heather Graham (Australia Big bash) *Also with Kathryn & Sarah Bryce (Scotland) *Without Sarah Glenn (England), Michaela Kirk (Rep South Africa) – seen spectating; or Georgie Boyce [*Georgia Redmayne keeping wicket for Stars]; *During the second over, Tammy Beaumont was ‘run-out’ by Tash Farrant; *Marie Kelly was caught by Paige Scholfield from Bryony Smith’s second ball; *After 6 overs power-play 49/2 (vs 46/2); *By mid-way (10 overs) 84/2 (vs 73/4); *As mentioned above, match-winning partnership between Kathryn & Sarah Bryce posted 79 runs; Kathryn Bryce was bowled by Dani Gregory; Sarah Bryce & Heather Graham were ‘not out;’ Heather Graham struck the winning ‘four’ over ‘mid-off,’ with 8 balls remaining; *Blaze’s batting Kathryn Bryce 62(45) misreported by non-ECB sources as from 44 balls, Sarah Bryce 52*not out(46); *Stars’ bowling: Dani Gregory 1/26 Bryony Smith 1/29;
*Match result: The Blaze 144/3 (@7.7 runs-per-over from 18.4/20 overs; target 142 from 20 ov.) beat South East Stars (@7.0 runs-per-over from 20/20 ov.) 141/9 by seven wickets with 8 balls remaining
*Scorecard courtesy of ECB @url: https://www.ecb.co.uk/charlotte-edwards-cup/match-centre/104413#scorecard AppleMac users may need to scroll down on left margin to select a match
*Video highlights (x49) courtesy of ECB, powered by NV Play @url https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/#v64290e19-54eb-4ce7-b333-980e24db1dc6
*Full match free-to-air courtesy of ECB (via NV Play) on YouTube<03h18m21s> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8huTR1mGKE&t=2s
*Complete final and semi-finals and post-match interviews courtesy of ECB (via NV Play) on YouTube<11h03m37s> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-zm-Cg-PHY&t=4215s
Footnote: ECB scorecard data should be amended as Blaze innings is reported under Stars with each other’s totals, and vice-versa (at time of writing)
