Top Performers:
1) Suzie Bates – The Veteran and ex-captain of Vipers, used all her experience to the best with both bat and ball, that helped Vipers to qualify into finals. She scored 37 runs and also picked up 3 wickets, that helped Vipers to qualify into finals.
2) Amanda Wellington – The young leggie from Australia was brilliant with her variations. She picked up 2 wickets with an economy rate of less than 6 and also played a fine cameo in the end, which helped Vipers to chase the target easily.
Match Summary:
An all-round display from the veteran Suzie Bates and youngster Wellington helped Southern Vipers to qualify for finals on finals day defeating Loughborough Lightning by 5 wickets at Hove on Sunday.
Winning the toss, Loughborough Skipper Georgia Elwiss opted to bat on a good batting surface. Loughborough openers failed to impress as the key player Amy Jones was out for just 9, her partner Athapaththu too did not spend much time at the crease, she followed Jones in the very next over scoring 10 runs. It was Adams and Elwiss who took the role of damage repairing. They had a partnership of 55 runs. Sadly, the partnership came to end with an excellent piece of fielding by Wyatt, which made Elwiss walk back to the hut. Immediately with the dismissal of Elwiss, Adams lost her patience and got out playing a rash shot which was not required at the moment.
Later, Mignon du Preez and Jenny Gunn played a decent cameo which made Loughborough end the inning with a decent score of 143 All-out in 19.5 overs. With the ball, initially, Wellington took the responsibility of putting brakes on Loughborough batting and in the later part, the senior pro- Suzie Bates did the damage to Loughborough by picking 3 wickets.
Chasing the target of 144, both the Vipers openers, Wyatt and Bates gave a dynamic start as they scored 71 runs in 6 overs without losing a single wicket. They had a partnership of 76 before the veteran Bates was cleaned up by youngster Gordon on 37, the next over Wyatt followed her partner by getting stumped in the bowling of Sarah Glenn. It looked like, Lightning had a slight chance of coming back as Vipers skipper got out on 24.
Vipers from 76 for 1 fell apart to 123 for 5, which gave Loughborough hope. sadly the youngster from Australia played an excellent cameo of 18 in a tensed situation, which helped Vipers to win over Lightning by 5 wickets with one over left in the inning.
Suzie Bates was declared as the player of the match for her All-round performance. Southern Vipers will be playing Western Storm in Finals.
Brief Score: Loughborough 143 All-out 19.5 overs (Elwiss 28, Bates 3 for 22) lost to Southern Vipers 145 for 5 in 19 overs (Bates 37, Elwiss 1 for 21) by 5 wickets.
