The rain around The Oval couldn’t dampen the South East Stars’ resolve as they comfortably beat Sunrisers by 19 runs on DLS, cementing their position in second place in the Charlotte Edwards Cup group stages with just a week left of the competition.
In a week when several Stars players were announced in the first batch of Surrey contracts for next season, they showed South London fans what they can expect when they don the brown caps for future campaigns. One player who probably won’t be here next year is Georgia Redmayne, who was making her Stars debut. The Australian wicketkeeper batter was the steadying influence with a 40-ball 38 that allowed more attacking batters to flail the Sunrisers to all parts of The Oval before being smartly caught by Amara Carr to give Mady Villiers the first of her two wickets.
With 21 from 11 balls, Bryony Smith took advantage of some loose bowling, striking four fours in Eva Gray’s first over. Sophia Dunkley, recalled by England for their series against New Zealand, didn’t last long and could manage only six from nine balls.
The following two partnerships proved the real impetus. Firstly, Phoebe Franklin, who hasn’t been needed with the bat too often for the Stars this season, looked busy during her innings of 23, playing well off the back foot. It allowed Emma Jones to launch a full-blooded attack, with the second of her two sixes hitting the seats five rows back and sending a pigeon scurrying for safety.
With Redmayne, Jones then helped add 57 from just 39 balls for the fourth wicket. Jones was on course for a rapid fifty, but in trying to deposit Sophie Munro for a straight six, she didn’t get enough elevation and Villiers took a comfortable catch to end her innings on 36 from 23 balls. If the Sunrisers bowlers thought their day would get easier, they were about to be proven mistaken as Alice Davidson-Richards powered her way to 16 from six balls.
154 runs to win in 18 overs always looked out of the Sunrisers’ reach and they were not helped when their top order crumbled around Grace Scrivens. Amu Surenkuma was the only other batter in the top five to make double figures. Villers was caught at deep midwicket by Jones of all people, from the third ball of the Sunrisers’ reply, off the bowling of Alexa Stonehouse, to depart without scoring. Alice Macleod was out the next over, skying Ryana MacDOnald-Gay, who had bowled three wides from her first three deliveries and finally got one on target, Redmayne taking the catch.
Sunrisers’ collapse continued with the introduction of Tilly Corteen-Coleman, the left-arm spinner who had an impressive breakthrough season and she took the wicket of Amara Carr with her first ball. Sunrisers were looking for someone to contribute alongside Scrivens, who was on her way to her ninth T20 fifty. She would remain unbeaten on 62 from 48 balls and, until the later stages, looked the only Sunrisers batter to get a grip of the task in hand.
By the time Jo Gardner joined Scrivens on 43 for five, the scenario was as bleak as the clouds drifting past the Oval. It took Garnder, who finished 23 not out, a while to get used to the pace of the pitch, but it was too little too late, and even if they had had twenty overs, the cause would still have been in vain. Despite that, the pair threw everything at the Stars bowlers, adding 63 from 47 runs before the rain cut proceedings short with the Sunrisers on 111 for five, 19 runs short of the DLS adjusted target.
South East Stars travel to Derby to play the unbeaten Blaze tomorrow in a top-of-the-table clash that could be a dress rehearsal for the final at the same venue a week later.
