Emma Marlow couldn’t hide her disappointment as the Northern Diamonds missed out on qualification for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy final today.
The Diamonds lost their home semi-final against Sunrisers by seven wickets, the visitors chasing down a 233 target.
Opener Marlow top-scored for the Diamonds with 63 off 102 balls in their 232-8 total, but half-centuries for Sunrisers trio Grace Scrivens, Cordelia Griffith and Jodi Grewcock set up a final at Leicester next Saturday against South East Stars.
Marlow said: “It’s going to be one that takes a while to sink in.
“It’s our last game at Headingley, and we wanted to go out in style and get to Leicester.
“It’s disappointing, but they were the better side today and deserve to be in the final. Hopefully they go all the way now.
“The pitch felt a bit slow to start with, but once we got ourselves in it felt a lot easier. It was about trying to build a bit of a platform, but unfortunately we lost wickets at the wrong time.
“Phoebe Turner did an excellent job (32 not out) at the end to get us to what we thought was around par. But they batted brilliantly, and we were on the wrong side of it on the day.
“We’ve been brilliant all season with the ball, but on the day it probably wasn’t our greatest bowling performance.”
