Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Olivia Thomas scored her second One-Day Cup fifty of the season to help Yorkshire post 259-9 at Northampton today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Cover photo: Captain Maddie Ward.
Yorkshire were beaten by Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Wantage Road today as the hosts chased 260 to confirm a semi-final place in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup and leave the visitors in a three-way fight for the remaining place in next month’s last four.
An engaging penultimate-round clash which swung back and forth saw the White Rose slip to 6-2 in the second over before recovering to 259-9 thanks largely to a superb determined middle-order 57 from Olivia Thomas.
Ami Campbell and Beth Langston, the batter back from Hundred duty with the Welsh Fire to play, also contributed important middle-order scores of 32 and 30.
They shared partnerships of 61 for the fifth wicket and 58 for the sixth with Thomas.
Northamptonshire then fell to 35-2 inside 10 overs of their chase but recovered impressively thanks largely to Beth Ascott’s career best 86 not out off 91 balls. They won by six wickets with 21 balls remaining.
She top-scored but shared a third-wicket partnership of 109 with in-form Michaela Kirk, on loan from The Blaze, and 101 for the fourth with Gemma Marriott, 50 off 54.
Kirk contributed a run-a-ball 77 to help give the Steelbacks their seventh win in eight games. They sit on 33 points alongside second-placed Glamorgan. Middlesex lead the way on 38. The top two teams secure a home semi-final.
Yorkshire, however, are chasing fourth spot, which they currently hold having won four and lost four so far. They sit on 20 points, ahead of fifth-placed Worcestershire courtesy of a superior net run-rate. Gloucestershire are also in the race on 18 points.
Should Yorkshire beat Kent at Canterbury in their last game on Saturday with the full five points, including a bonus point, they would be through to the semis.
Here, on a sunny Midlands day, the visiting recovery with the bat from 6-2 having been inserted was capped by an unbroken 10th-wicket partnership of 48 in 5.5 overs from Jess Woolston and Claudie Cooper, the latter hitting a List A career best 24 not out.
Northamptonshire’s new-ball seamer Bethan Robinson was excellent for her List A best 4-46 from eight overs, including two wickets bowled in her first over. But it was a major surprise that she did not bowl her full allocation of 10 overs, especially considering the visiting recovery.
Robinson cartwheeled Amelia Oliver’s off-stump with a beauty of a delivery early in the second over before, two balls later, bowling Rebecca Duckworth.
Robinson later had Yorkshire skipper Ward bowled having played on attempting to scoop before Erin Thomas, on 25, pulled her to mid-on, leaving the score at 58-4 in the 10th over.
Then came the 61 stand between Olivia Thomas and Campbell, the latter strong on the drive and pull in hitting five boundaries in her 30-ball innings.
Robinson actually had a hand in each of the first five wickets to fall on a glorious Midlands day, taking a superb one-handed catch running in and around to much straighter from long-on, as Campbell fell to Mabel Reid’s stream.
That left the score at 119-5 after 21 overs.
Olivia Thomas capitalised on anything short, both cutting and pulling, as she picked up eight boundaries in a more measured effort which also saw her share a second half-century stand – this one with Langston.
She was unfortunate to have been given lbw against the superb off-spinner Ella Phillips who returned 1-13 from her 10 overs. Of the dismissal in question, the initial impression was that bat was involved, while the bowler and wicketkeeper Chloe Hill both aborted appeals.
When Thomas, who had reached her second 50-over half-century of the season off 71 balls, fell, the score was 177-6 after 34 overs and Yorkshire were back in the game.
But Yorkshire then lost three wickets for 15 to leave them 211-9 in the 45th over, with Amelia Kemp’s seam accounting for Langston superbly caught at deep square-leg by Marriott before captain Anisha Patel’s leg-spin had Ria Fackrell stumped and Reid got Ines Blackwell caught at cover for 17.
However, just when Northamptonshire felt they had limited the damage done by the recovery, there was a positive sting in the tail from Yorkshire’s point of view as Cooper and Woolston united.
Number 11 Cooper took on the lead role by hitting five boundaries in her 19 balls – two were pulled – as Yorkshire topped 250.
Yorkshire then strengthened their position as Woolston and Olivia Thomas struck inside the opening 10 overs of the home chase, leaving the Steelbacks at 35-2.
Bella Howarth was caught behind trying to evade a Woolston delivery which followed her before Olivia Thomas’s leg-spin had Kemp caught at slip, Campbell taking a stunning one-handed catch diving to her right.
But Northamptonshire recovered impressively through Kirk and Ascott.
Kirk is the leading run-scorer in this competition with 441 to her name, and she was strong through the covers.
When she fell having played on against a Blackwell in-swinger, the score was 144-3 after 27 overs.
Ascott reached her first List A fifty shortly afterwards, off 51 balls, and Yorkshire changed wicketkeepers twice – firstly to allow captain Ward to bowl some spin.
Substitute Olivia Breese from the EPP initially took the gloves for a few overs before opening batter Oliver went behind the stumps for the majority of the second half of the innings.
Yorkshire were hurt by the loss of Olivia Thomas to a foot injury. She could only bowl five overs.
And Ascott and Marriott ensured the Kirk wicket wasn’t a damaging one in a game which saw some brilliant catching from both sides but also some suspect ground-fielding.
Ascott picked up the majority of her nine boundaries behind the wicket.
Woolston (2-34 from 10 overs) had Marriott caught at point, but the hosts needed only 15 at that stage, in the 44th over.
