Sunrisers v Northern Diamonds
Charlotte Edwards Cup
Sunday June 2, 2024, 11.30am
Wantage Road
Toss: Sunrisers won it and elected to bowl.
Sunrisers: Grace Scrivens c, Jo Gardner, Cordelia Griffith, Mady Villiers, Lissy Macleod, Jodi Grewcock, Flo Miller, Amara Carr w, Eva Gray, Sophie Munro, Nicola Hancock.
Diamonds: Lauren Winfield-Hill w, Leah Dobson, Hollie Armitage c, Erin Burns, Bess Heath, Sterre Kalis, Emma Marlow, Katherine Fraser, Grace Hall, Katie Levick, Rachel Slater.
Match Summary: Sunrisers won a last-ball thriller by four wickets chasing 124 as captain Grace Scrivens hit a superb 64 not out from 57 balls opening the batting to consign the Diamonds to a fifth straight Charlotte Edwards defeat.
Diamonds skipper Hollie Armitage impressed with 39 in their 123-8 and then three wickets with her leg-spinners, but Sunrisers gained 25 off the last two overs, including 11 off Erin Burns in the last – and two off the last ball, to seal victory.
Armitage’s side must now realistically win all of their five remaining group matches to have any chance of reaching the top four places in the group and Finals Day.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Hollie Armitage (l) and Lauren Winfield-Hill led the way with the bat for the Diamonds.
Report: Diamonds started well as Lauren Winfield-Hill pulled two boundaries off Mady Villiers’ off-spin in the first over, which went for nine. But they were becalmed, reaching 27-1 after six overs on a slow pitch.
Leah Dobson was bowled by Australian seamer Nicola Hancock for five.
Captain Armitage settled quickly en-route to 39 off 40 balls, the top-score in the innings. She was later the standout bowler with 3-16 from three overs of leg-spin.
When she arrived at the crease, Winfield-Hill was 16, but Armitage overtook her in the late 20s.
Unfortunately, pretty quickly afterwards, Winfield-Hill was caught at mid-off for 26 off the leg-spin of Jodi Grewcock, leaving the Diamonds at 63-2 in the 11th over.
Armitage pulled a couple of early boundaries to get into her innings on a glorious Northampton day.
She was struck on the upper body by a full toss from Hancock and was fortunate when, on 33, a top edge landed in between converging fielders at mid-wicket.
But her innings didn’t last too much longer as the Diamonds suffered a late innings collapse.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Lauren Winfield-Hill made a good start with the bat.
From 89-2 in the 15th over, they lost six wickets for 34 to finish short of where they looked like being on a slowish pitch.
Erin Burns swept Villiers out to deep mid-wicket for 11 at the end of the 15th before Armitage, attempting to ramp, was bowled by Hancock in the next over for 39 off 40 balls – 91-4.
Sterre Kalis and Bess Heath (18) were run out, and sandwiched in between Emma Marlow was caught at short fine-leg off Villiers and Katherine Fraser was bowled by Eva Gray’s seam.
Diamonds made a positive start to their defence, limiting Sunrisers to 22-0 after the six-over powerplay, including a maiden from Burns’ off-spin.
Grace Hall made the breakthrough in the ninth over when she forced Jo Gardner (21) to sky to cover – 41-1 in the ninth.
Fraser’s off-spin accounted for Lissy MacLeod – also caught at cover by Marlow – in the 11th, 47-2. And the pressure was building on the hosts. The Diamonds were in business, with Fraser returning an excellent 1-22 from four overs.
Two more wickets came in the 12th and 13th overs – Villiers well caught on the deep mid-wicket fence by Heath off Armitage and Cordelia Griffith bowled by Burns, leaving the score at 60-4. Sunrisers still needed 64 for victory.
Sunrisers captain Grace Scrivens, who top-scored with 64 not out, and Grewcock (20) added some impetus into the innings and took the score to 99-4 late in the 18th. But Armitage struck twice in two balls in that over, getting Grewcock caught and bowled off a full toss and Hancock bowled – 99-6.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Katherine Fraser was excellent with the ball.
Sunrisers needed 25 off two overs and then 11 off the last, with left-handed opener Scrivens having reached her fifty off 52 balls amidst 14 coming from Katie Levick in the penultimate.
And then came the decisive moments as Scrivens hit two leg-side boundaries off Burns and hoisted her over mid-on’s head for the two needed off the last ball.
It was heartbreak for the Diamonds, who now have no room for manoeuvre in this competition.
Magic moment: Hollie Armitage struck twice in the 18th over to put the Diamonds in a good position, with Sunrisers at 99-6. She removed Jodie Grewcock and Nicola Hancock. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t to be for the visitors.
Turning point: It had to be the last ball of the match. At 122-6, with Grace Scrivens facing Erin Burns, Sunrisers needed two to win. The left-hander hoisted the last ball over mid-on’s head for victory.
Stat of the match: On a slow pitch not the easiest for batting, only two players made it beyond 30 – the respective captains, Hollie Armitage with 39 and Grace Scrivens with 64 not out.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Hollie Armitage nearly dragged the Diamonds to victory with the ball.
What they said – captain Hollie Armitage: “We showed a lot of character today, hence why we took it to the last over. You get these games where last season we may have been on the right side of them. Unfortunately, at the minute we’re finding ways to let it slip through our fingers.
“With how we batted last game, we improved massively. We lost 10 for 36 or something stupid (at Durham), and today we’ve taken it deeper and built some more partnerships in the middle. Unfortunately, we’ve come out on the wrong side of it.
“I think we might have been 5-10 short with the bat. You can then nit-pick certain things, but I think we bowled and fielded extremely well today. We’ve been improving every game. It’s just that we’re not getting over the line, unfortunately.
“But we’re professional cricketers, and we want to win games of cricket and trophies. We’re not here to take part. There are things we can work on and develop. We have to park these five games and start our tournament again to see what we can do.”
What’s next: The Diamonds face Central Sparks at Edgbaston on Saturday morning in their sixth Charlotte Edwards fixture, starting at 11.30am.
