Top Performers
1) Hayley Matthews- Caribbean All-rounder continues to shine with the ball and her performance with the bat was also better. Matthews picked up a key wicket of Dashing opener Alyssa Healy, she ended her spell with the figures of 2 for 19. With the bat, though she couldn’t score huge, gave a good start to the team scoring 24 in 23 balls. Overall, her all-round performance helped Loughborough to win.
2) Jemimah Rodrigues – The young sensation from India made a mark in KSL with a very matured inning of 58 in just 40 balls including 6 fours. She was the only player to score a 50 in the match in tough conditions. Her inning of 58 helped the team to have some target to defend.
3) Mignon du Preez – The pocket dynamo from South Africa continued to give her best with the bat. Her Lightning innings of 38 in 24 balls helped Loughborough lightning to seal the game against Diamonds.
Summary:
An all-round performance from Matthews and an excellent cameo from Du Preez helped Loughborough Lightning to win the game against Yorkshire Diamonds at Loughborough on Sunday.
On winning the toss, Diamonds skipper opted to bat on a slow pitch thinking it might slow down later as the match progresses. Alyssa Healy continued to fail in KSL 19 as she was out for 15 on the bowling of Matthews. Skipper Lauren Winfield got out in single-digit scoring just 9 runs. Diamonds were struggling at 29 for 2. Then came the young sensation from India Jemimah who scored her debut 50 in KSL.
Many congratulations to young Jemimah Rodrigues on her maiden #KSL2019 half-century for @YorksDiamonds!
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 18, 2019
What a star! pic.twitter.com/znP0Fd7G5s
Playing her first season of KSL. She looked cool and calm at the crease, showing everyone that age doesn’t matter to cope with the pressure. She scored an excellent knock of 58 in 40 balls. Trying to increase the run rate in the last two overs, Diamond lost 5 of their wickets. Out of which 3 were run-outs. Everyone was expecting a score of around 150. The disaster running made them end the inning at 129 All out. Sadly, 4 out of 10 wickets were run out. Which is not a good sign for the team.
On Chasing the easy score of 130, Lightning started pretty well with Jones and Matthews had a good partnership of 49. Matthews was cleaned up Katie Levick on 24. On the other side, Amy Jones continued to play sensibly. Chamari who joined the crease after the wicket of Matthews was dismissed for 15, Jones followed her the next ball getting out at 29. It looked like Diamonds were back in the game. But, the pocket dynamo Du Preez did not allow them to come back. She played a terrific inning of 38 not out in 24 balls which helped Lightning to win the game by 6 wickets in 19.1 overs.
With this win, Loughborough jumped to third place on the points table and Diamonds continue at number 5, qualification for finals day looks tough for them.
Brief scores: Loughborough Lightning 135/4 (Du Preez 38, Langston 1 for 17) defeated Yorkshire Diamonds 129/10 ( Jemimah Rodrigues 58, Matthews 2 for 19) by 5 wickets.
