Taunton
The Semis
Surrey v Warwickshire
Kent won this game for Surrey. There were six of them in the team, and both innings turned on their performances.
Alexa Stonehouse took 4-29 and Ryana Macdonald-Gay 2-25 to put the skids under the Midlanders’ innings. They scored fast, but after reaching 65-6 in under nine overs, then 115-7, the tail-enders collapsed in a heap, losing three wickts for four runs.
This was to prove the difference between the two sides.
Surrey fared scarcely better in the early stages. Bryony Smith sees her job as hitting every ball for a boundary till her luck runs out. Today she made 16 off 10. The rest of the top order failed to build sizeable innings, each making a poor choice of shot before they were set. Alice Davidson- Richards was a typical example. All too soon she treated Hannah Baker’s leg-spinners with insufficient respect and lofted an easy catch.
At 62-6 Surrey were in an inferior position to Warwickshire’s earlier. Now Kent came to the rescue. Kalea Moore and Macdonald-Gay built a 58-run partnership as the overs ticked relentlessly by. Moore eventually fell (35/31), attempting another big hit off the persevering Georgia Davis.
That left 16 runs still needed off 13 balls. In came Stonehouse to hit 12 off 6 balls and clinch a tense match.
Surrey’s contributions were led by Dani Gregory, who bowled well as usual this season, taking 3-20.
For the losers, skipper Davis (1-17) and Baker (3-25) led the attack, and Davina Perrin’s out- fielding approached the miraculous.
Scores:
Warwickshire 133-9
Surrey 135-7 (19.4 overs)
Surrey won by 3 wickets with two balls to spare
Second Match: The Blaze v Lancashire
Thanks to Charlotte Edwards’ choices for the England series (carrying on the same day at Chelmsford), Sophie Ecclestone was available to continue her county career.
Alongside her, the veteran Kate Cross went for 12 runs off her first over.
Now a feature to disturb all batting coaches, technique (and attitude) towards spin-bowling. This has been a recurrent weakness among England’s top batters, and it runs much further than that. It’s as if they allof them believe spinners are easy meat. Forget what you’ve been taught, plonk your front foot well outside the leg-stump and swing across the line,
The worst example was Georgia Elwiss’ first ball – she stepped away, presented a horizontal bat and missed.
At 73-5 (13.2 overs) the ground-staff dragged the covers on. The players didn’t scurry off to avoid a drenching, but the Quantocks threatened to disappear in the mist.
The game was reduced to 16 overs apiece. As play restarted, the Blazers needed to take chances, but technical weaknesses against spin bowling again took their toll. With Ecclestone at the other end, life at the crease proved short. Even when bats made contact with the ball, it was rarely off the middle. She picked up two wickets in her final over to claim 3-19.
The Reply
Lancashire’s start could hardly have been worse. Tilly Kesteven was run out by a mile as she and Emma Lamb disagreed about a single off Kirstie Gordon. Fi Morris hit two glorious fours, then ran another suicidal single, knowing from way out that she wouldn’t make it. That added up to two ducks and two run-outs (both thanks to Cass McCarthy).
By now it was odds on the Blaze to continue their recent successes. Seren Smale was finding life difficult. But slowly she and Ellie Threlkeld dug themselves out of a sizeable hole.
Kirstie Gordon was her usual mean self (purely as a bowler!), Grace Balllinger offered some testers with her inswing, but none of the back-up bowlers, Kathryn Bryce, Elwiss and McCarthy, could make a breakthrough. The two batters (Smale 35*, Threlkeld 34*) can take great credit for seeing their side home to a rare final for the red rose county.
Scores:
The Blaze: 86-8
Lancashire: 91-3
Lancashire won by 7 wickets
Final
Surrey v Lancashire
Bryony Smith won the toss and chose to bowl. Where have we met that decision before? Both sides remained unchanged.
Tilly Kesteven, a left-hander standing in for the injured Eve Jones, took advantage of a short ball to square-drive Stonehouse for 4.
There were scrambled singles at the start that betrayed nerves, but three straight drives by Kesteven off Stonehouse relieved the tension.
It’s astonishing how often a bowler, switching to go around the wicket, bowls the next ball wide down the leg-side. It happened now to Ryana MG, who, like Stonehouse, couldn’t find line or length.
This was a recurrent feature of Surrey’s bowling, adding force to the theory that it’s better to play two matches straight off, rather than win one, then have a longish break and try to pick up the pieces come eventide.
30 off the first four was good news for Lancs; a powerplay of 48-0 even better. Kesteven dominated the chase, especially with straight drives (29*/23). This was the first successful powerplay of the day.
The Quantocks had disappeared from view. As Phoebe Franklin completed her first over, the seventh, Kesteven helped herself to two identical extra-cover drives for four. Then rain stopped play.
No need to guess which side was grateful to the Clerk to the Weather. Surrey had been spanked all around the ground. 58-0 off 7.
After 23 minutes they came out again. The only difference in the weather was that it had stopped raining. For the rest, it was miserable, just what we deserved after weeks of drought.
The batters took advantage of the wet ball. Kesteven went to a splendid half-century off a mere 37 balls as bowlers offered full-tosses, long-hops and wides. Smith wisely queried the state of the ball and it was changed. At once a wicket, Lamb holing out in the deep to Tilly Corteen-Coleman. The sun came out to greet Surrey’s belated success.
The 100 came up in the 13th with another four to Kesteven. Her innings came to an end as Kalea Moore picked up two wickets in the 17th. She had made 77 off 60 out of 135. Curiously, she was out to the faulty stroke I mentioned earlier, stepping away to a straight ball. Ecclestone was sent in to complete the slaughter. 173 was a massive target.
The Reply
When Kira Chathli launched Kate Cross over the rope twice in her second over, we knew Surrey meant business. Bryony Smith was the accepted hitter, but Chathli’s 95 the other week showed her in a new light. The next ball – cleaned bowled. You never can tell. Chathli’s details: 21 off 8.
As rain threatened again Threlkeld wisely introduced Ecclestone. If enough overs were completed to invoke DLS (5), then every run saved was a diamond. She went for a single, and the rain seemed to retreat.
Smith hit Grace Potts for 4, 4, 4, and 4, then let herself be caught. For a moment I thought she was in for one of her big innings again (25/16).
Phoebe Franklin played the major Surrey innings (41), but not at the rate she wanted. Eventually she fell to the remorseless Ecclestone.
Lacking a big innings of the Kesteven variety, Surrey found themselves needing 62 off the last four overs. Hit after hit had been mistimed, running out to deep fielders who hadn’t a care in the world.
Such tension as was left in the game increased as Cross asked the umpire to inspect the second ball used thus far. A replacement was found, but not one capable of finishing out of the ground every delivery.
As we reached the last over, the scorebook showed a profusion of singles, the vast majority coming from huge swings with imperfect contact. Just 46 needed. Easy as that target was, the Kent pair had Ecclestone to deal with; she’d taken 3-9 in her three overs. It took her three more deliveries to gain her fourth wicket. For once RMG swung and missed a straight one.
It had been exceptionally hard for the batters, since they had achieved so few boundaries. All that running! They had put on 34 for the 7th wicket this time.
The innings petered out at 140-7. Lancashire had their first piece of metalwork (I’ll assume it was metal) and were justified in their rejoicing.
Ah, at last we saw the trophy! And it was small and light enough for Ellie Threlkeld to pick it up with barely two fingers! The coach-driver won’t be charging extra to stow it on board.
Scores:
Lancashire 172-6 (Moore 4-27)
Surrey 140-7 (Ecclestone 4-0-12-4!) Lancashire won by 32 runs
Player of the Match: Tilly Kesteven (77)
Teams:
Lancashire: Emma Lamb, Tilly Kesteven, Seren Smale, FI Morris, Ellie Threlkeld (captain), Ailsa Lister, Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross, Cassidy McCarthy, Tara Norris, Grace Potts, Sophie Morris
Surrey: Bryony Smith (captain), Kira Chathli, Paige Scholfield, Phoebe Franklin, Alice Davidson- Richards, Emma Jones, Kalea Moore, Ryana Macdonald-Gay, Alexa Stonehouse, Dani Gregory, Tilly Corteen-Coleman
Afterthoughts
The absence of views of the crowd from inquisitive cameras told its own story. So far as televiewers could tell, there wasn’t one, a black mark against the ECB and Somerset CCC.
I still find these 3-matches-in-one-day jaunts less than satisfactory. Given the length of a T20 game, there’s little alternative, but the number of applauding spectators at the end in the dark was minute.
