In a preview of next week’s semi-final, South East Stars stroll to an easy with over The Blaze
With Finals Day less than a week away, Derby hosted two sides that will take part in the semi-finals of the Charlotte Edwards Cup next Saturday. The South East Stars walked away with the morale-boosting win against league leaders The Blaze, who had won their first eight games before today. The Stars were without Paige Scholfield, Sophia Dunkley and Tash Farrant for the second game in a row, but their performance didn’t dip, and they were comfortable winners against The Blaze, winning by five wickets with 29 balls to spare.
Stars carried on in the same emphatic manner as they did at The Oval yesterday against Sunrisers. It was again the Powerplay where they did the damage, and The Blaze were struggling to post a total that even their bowlers could defend.
Find of the season, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, bowled well in the early overs, and the left-arm spinner did the damage, dismissing Tammy Beaumont not quite from her first ball of the match but in her first over.
Courteen-Coleman struck again in the power play, leaving The Blaze 12 for four inside the first five overs. It was a good day for the Stars bowlers, and Kalea Moore was the only bowler not to pick up a wicket, with Alexa Stonehouse the pick of the bowlers with three for 13.
It would fall on The Blaze lower order for the first time this season to muster a defendable total. When Kathryn Bryce was bowled for 14 by Emma Jones to a ball that didn’t bounce as much as the batter would have wanted, The Blaze were 36 for five.
There weren’t any batting heroics like the first game of this competition, where The Blaze recovered from 40 for six to beat the Southern Vipers.
A partnership of 26 between leg-spinners Sarah Glenn and Josie Groves had started to propel The Blaze in the right direction. When Groves was caught and bowled by Dani Gregory for 14, and Glenn on her home ground was bowled by Corteen-Coleman, The Blaze didn’t have any answers and were bowled out for 84 in 18.5 overs.
The Blaze were faced with the prospect of bowling against a team full of clean strikers of the ball. They have faced the wrath of Bryony Smith before and would been elated when she found Marie Kelly at mid-on to go for three.
Stars batted steadily, not taking any risks. Georgia Redmayne, like yesterday, was the batter that the others could bat around as she scored a 26-ball 23.
Emma Jones made a real difference to the momentum for the second game in a row with a quick-fire 30 from just 15 balls that included a straight six down the ground to win the game.
Both teams have a Group game left before they are back at Derby next Saturday for Finals Day, and a lot can happen in that time, but South East Stars will go into the final week of their T20 campaign the happier.
The Blaze are full of strong characters, and you can be sure they will come back fighting in the next week.
