The Hundred Leeds Sunrisers v Southern Brave at Headinley July 25th

Neil Whitaker reports

SOUTHERN  Brave beat Sunrisers  Leeds by five wickets with four balls to spare at Headingley. 

Top scorer for the Brave was Jemimah Rodrigues who hit an unbeaten 42 and hit the winning runs when she  swept Jess Jonassen to the fine leg boundary.  Rodrigues figured in the three main partnership of the Brave innings.  The first was only 10 but it steadied a rocky Brave ship with Lee, then a partnership of 35 with Brave captain Sophie Molineux and then fifth with wicket partnership of 39n with Jodi Grewcock which almost got the Brave over the line. 

The big set for the Brave came when Rodrigues hit consecutive fours off Sunrisers captain Dani Gibson.  The first went to the extra cover boundary, the second to the cover boundary  to ease the pressure on the Brave. But with seven needed off eight balls  Grewcock hit a drive off  Annabel Sutherland in the air and Phoeba Litchfield at mid-on took a sprawling catch. Rodrigues was dropped on 10 off Cassidy McCarthy  at mid-wicket and made the Sunrisers rue that error. 

In their chase Southern Brave’s opener Maia Bouchier was beaten by a  quicker ball from  McCarthy and was bowled.  Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt looked confident  but both  were fortunate that when they did give a chance the ball didn’t go to hand or it slipped through the hands.  Wolvaardt was unlucky when she mishit a drive off Gibson and the ball went straight to Jonssen at mid-off. 

Lee was bowled by one that came back at her from McCarthy. Brave’s captain Molineux hit Gibson for a straight six. But when she went down the pitch to   Jonassen and hit her in the air Deepti Sharma ran in from the long-off boundary and dived forward to take the catch. 

Put into bat the Sunrisers reached 110 in their 100 balls with opener Bryony Smith top scoring with 48 doing the damage for the Southern Brave were Issy Wong who took three wickets for 15 and Tilly  Courteen-Coleman who took two wickets and held two catches. The Sunrisers suffered an early loss with Wong bowled Jonassen for a duck.  On 12 Smith had a life when she  pulled Wong but was dropped on the square leg boundary.  But Litchfield wasn’t so lucky when she chipped Courteen-Coleman straight down Bouchier’s throat at long-on.

Smith cut Sarah Glenn to the extra cover boundary to bring up the Sunrisers 50 off 50 balls. She  pulled Lauren Bell for a one bounce four to the square leg boundary. Sutherland swept Courteen-Coleman over the square leg leg boundary for a six.  With these two together it looked the Sunrisers would pose a challenging total. 

Smith  glanced Courteen-Carter off her legs  to the fine leg boundary to bring up the fifty partnership with Sutherland off 33 balls. The partnership was broken when Sutherland squeezed Glenn out to point who took a knee high catch.  Four balls later Gibson edged Corteen-Coleman to stumper Lee. 

Then it became a procession to and from the hutch.  Smith edged a drive off Wong to Courteen-Coleman at short third man. Lauren Winfield-Hill tried to sweep Wong from well outside her off-stump missed the ball and was bowled for  a duck. 

Sharma went down the pitch to Molineux and lofted her for a one bounce four to the long-off boundary.  She swept Molineux to Courteen-Carter at short fine leg. 

The Sunrisers suffered three run outs in their final set of five balls with Carter and McCarthy failing to beat stumper Lee direct hits and Turner was beaten by Grewcock’s throw.

SCORECARD