Top Performers:
1) Stafanie Taylor: Windies Skipper and allrounder with her amazing performance with both the bat and ball helped Vipers to draw a match against Thunders on Thursday. With the ball, She bowled an excellent spell of 2/23 in 4 overs and with the bat, she scored a match-saving inning of 51 in 43 balls which helped Vipers to drew the match against Thunder.
2) Amanda Wellington: The young leg spinner from Adelaide impressed everyone with her leg-spin and other variations against Thunder. She ended up with the spell of 3 for 22 in 4 overs. Definitely, she looks like the future of the Southern Stars team.
3) Kate Cross: The experienced bowling allrounder impressed with both bat and ball which helped thunder to drew a game against Vipers. She bowled an economical spell of 2/13 in 4 overs and a quick cameo of 22 with the bat.
Match Summary
The Kia Super League witnessed one of the finest matches in the history of the tournament, a nail biter and an edge of the seat thriller was seen on Thursday at Hove.
Lancashire Thunder skipper on winning the toss opted to bat. They did not have a great of the starts as opener McGrath departed for a duck and Sune luus was runout for 1. Thunder was struggling for 3- 2 in 2 overs. Joining the crease at the middle of our own Harmanpreet Kaur and Brown took the responsibility of building the innings, Brown was out after a decent inning of 23 and Harmanpreet Kaur was dismissed on 34. Who ended up as the top scorer for the team. In the end, a late cameo from Emma lamb helped Lancashire Thunder to set the target of 133 for Vipers. With the ball, it was Australian spinner, Amanda Wellington was excellent with her leg-spin and Googly with figures of 3 for 22 and on the other end, she was well supported by Stafanie Taylor who bowled an equally good spell of 2 for 23.
On Chasing the target of 132, Even Vipers didn’t have a great start, dashing opener, Danielle Wyatt was dismissed on 1 and the veteran Bates and Brookes followed her on 10 and 0 respectively. Captain and Inform batter, Beaumont also failed to shine as she was departed for 10. Vipers were struggling at 24 for 4.At this stage It looked like a one-sided contest. All the hopes were on Windies skipper Stafanie Taylor, she took the responsibility of chase on her shoulder and played a magnificent and match-saving inning of 51. She was well supported by Bouchier, who played equally good innings of 40. It looked like Vipers would seal the game easily at 18 overs.
Then came another twist in the tale with Taylor departing for 51 with 15 runs to win in 12 balls. Following Taylor’s wicket, Bouchier followed her by an excellent fielding of Ecclestone. In the last over Vipers required 12 runs to win the game. The young leg spinner who was great with the ball scored two important boundaries in the final over. She was dismissed after scoring a couple of boundaries, which added more drama to the game. When it was 2 required off 2 balls Tash Farrant was cleaned up by Emma Lamb. Finally, it was 2 required off the last ball, Carla Rudd was able to score only 1. So, after all the drama and twists, Match ended in a draw. Both team sharing points. It was definitely one of the best matches in the history of KSL tournament. With the ball for thunder, it was Lamb and Cross were the best bowlers of the day ending with 3 and 2 wickets respectively.
With a tie, Thunder sadly continued to be at the bottom of the table and Vipers are sitting second on the points table.
Brief score: Thunder 132/7 ( Kaur 34, Wellington 3 for 22 ) drew against Vipers 132 /8 ( Taylor 51, Lamb 3/33).