‘The Hundred’ Women Souperchargers v London Spirit August 14th

Neal Whitaker reports Headingley

AT LAST for the women Northern Supercharges as the beat the London Spirit by five runs at Headingley.

Bess Heath top scored for the Northrthern Supercharges with 57 and shared in a third wicket partnership of 70 in 50 balls with Laura Wolvaardt who was unbeaten on 24.  Heath said: “It was good to get a win at home in front of my family and friends. We needed to build partnerships but we realised  that when the runs weren’t coming as fast we had to put away our big shots and try and work the ball around.  At the halfway stage we knew we had a job to do and we needed to clear our minds.  It was nice to score some runs and I’ll take them in the form that I am in and control the things that I can control.”

Heath shuffled Amelia Kerr to the square leg boundary and smashed Spirit captain Charlotte  Dean straight to the long off boundary.  Later in the set she went down the pitch and pulled Dean to the mid wicket boundary where the ball bamboozled the fielder.

In the next set she reversed swept Kerr which blasted its way to the boundary. She repeated the shot two balls later with more finesse but with the same result. Heath pulled Megan  Schutt to the square leg boundary to bring up the fifty partnership with Wolvaardt.

Heath’s fifty from 29 balls with nine fours.  In the next set she drilled Dean to the mid wicket boundary for her only six of the innings. Two balls later she reversed pulled Dean and was fortunate that the Spirit’s fielding let them down again as she was dropped.  But her luck ran out when she pulled Grace  Scrivens and Natasha  Wraith took an ankle height catch.

Supercharges captain Hollie Armitage drove Kerr but picked out Schutt on the long on boundary 

Put into bat the Superchargers lost their first wicket in their third set when Jemimah Rodrigues had a big swing across the to  line Freya Davies and was bowled.

Alyssa Healy lofted Davies over long for the first six of the match, two balls later she lofted Davies again over long on this time for a one bounce four. In the next set she smashed a full toss from Kerr  to Alice  Monaghan on the long off boundary.

In their first set the Supercharges Lucy  Higham failed to take a return catch off Beth Mooney when she was in eight. Scrivens thrashed Higham to the mid wicket boundary as the Spirit raced to 36 without loss at the end of their powerplay compared to the  Suprcharges 26 for one.

The Superchargers got a breakthrough on 48  when Scrivens was given out leg before but she reviewed it and after an age the TV Umpire agreed.  The Spirits were two down when Mooney was run out going for a second and three down the next ball when Amelia Gibson pulled Davidson-Richards to Levick who took a low catch at fine leg.

Luff toe ended Davidson-Richards for a one bounce four over long on and she started the next set from Jenny Gunn for a four in the same place.

Kerr cut Gunn to the point boundary and finished the set with a delicate late cut to the boundary.

After bowling her first set for two runs, Katie Levick changed to the Howard stand and Kerr drilled her first ball to the cover boundary but she gently placed the next ball to Davidson-Richard’s on the long off boundary.

With the Spirits needing 34 from 17 balls Luff flat batted  Beth Langston for a much welcomed four. In the next set she went down the pitch to Higham and nailed her for a six over long off.

Naomi Dattani  top edged a sweep off Higham  and found Wolvaardt on the extra cover boundary.  With 23 needed from 10 balls the Spirits got   three runs  from the first three balls.  Luff swept Linsey Smith and a miss field allowed a four.  Monaghan was run out attempting a two. The next ball was a wide and a single off the last.

With 15 needed off the last five balls the final set was given to Davidson-Richard. Dean drilled the first ball to the cover boundary.  They got a single off the next ball when they should have got two. With seven needed off two balls,  Dean sliced the fourth ball to Heath  at point.

Luff said: “I am gutted that we didn’t across the line. We left ourselves too much to do at the end and we lost wickets in clusters.  We thought that if we could get a couple of boundaries away we would win the game.”

SCORECARD