Northern Diamonds v Sunrisers at Headingley May 28th

Charlotte Edwards Cup

Neil Whitaker reports

THE Northern Diamonds maintained their unbeaten start in the Charlotte Edwards cup by beating the Sunrisers by 35  runs with eight balls to spare at Headingley.


Leading the Diamonds to victory was leg spinner Katie Levick who took five wickets for 15 in her  four overs. She said: “I think that’s my best bowling performance.  We’ve always said that Headingley is a good batting track so we did well to restrict them.  In our matches this season someone different has stood up in every game. The Sunrisers have got a quality batting line-up and knew that they would get opportunities to get the runs but every time they swung the game their way we took a wicket by inducing them to play some false shots.”



After winning the toss and deciding to bat the Northern Diamonds lost  an early wicket when Lauren Winfield-Hill drove Kelly   Castle to Abtah Masood at long off in the fourth over.  Hollie Armitage also went cheaply when she chipped Grace  Scrivens to Castle at mid off.


Lauren Dobson tried to reach her 50 in style by hitting leg spinner Scrivens  for a six into the Howard stand but found Alice Miller a few yards in from the long on boundary.


Heath on 13 went down the pitch to Mandy  Villiers missed the ball but stumper Amara  Carr made a mess of the stumping.  The pair ran one off the wide only for Carr to make a better attempt at stumping Sterie Kalis  for 30  off Villiers.


Heath hit consecutive sixes off Castle, the first over mid wicket and the second straight, which brought up the Diamonds 150,before she was stumped off the next ball.


The Sunrisers were soon in trouble losing both openers before the end of the third over.  First to go was the dangerous South African Dane Van Niekerk who edged Scott to stumper Heath.  Villiers followed her back into the hutch when she tried to sweep Chloe Tryon, missed the ball and was leg before. Lissy MacLeod tried to cut a ball that was too close to her and lost his leg stump.


A six by Cordelia  Griffith off Katherine  Fraser to get her off the mark  sparked some life into the Sunrisers reply.  She blasted a four off Tryon and her partner Scrivens also found the boundary.  Despite adding  33 in six  overs with Scrivens, Griffith felt the pressure from Levick and resorted to use the long handle and found Tryon on the long off boundary.


Jo Gardner used the long handle to hit consecutive fours of Grace Hill: the first was straight and the second went through long off.  She tried it once too often but on the third ball she found Winfield-Hill on the long off boundary 


Levick got her third wicket when she drew Gray out of the crease and missed the ball and was stumped by Heath who nearly made a mess of it.  Two balls later Heath made a better job of stumping Florence  Miller.


Scrivens top scored for the Sunrisers with 50 but the ball after she reached her 50 she became Heath’s third stumping victim.  She said: “We let them get 30 too many and we didn’t perform too many partnerships.  I am pleased that I got a score but I needed someone with me.”


For the Sunrisers the defeat was their fourth in the competition and Scrivens added: “We just need to back ourselves.”


Levick added: “There are no easy games in this competition and it was good to see Scrivens go for it at the end where we needed her to get off strike so we could build the pressure on her.”

SCORECARD