As the sun set on the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, it was finally the Sunrisers’ time to shine as they won by 27 runs at Leicester against South East Stars, who finished the season runners-up in both domestic competitions.
The weather didn’t play ball as a deluge of rain left the outfield unplayable, and the thunder and lightning danced across the sky.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for a club that struggled to get started in the new era of regional cricket. A gradual building of momentum over the last two seasons has seen the East of England side finish as the final regional 50 over champions, before next season’s return to the county system.
Grace Scrivens won the toss, and her Sunrisers side never looked back once they had chosen to bowl first. Kate Coppack, who represented Peru in six games in Columbia in 2018, was the pick of the Sunrisers bowlers, taking four for 27. It was the perfect display of seam bowling to put the Sunrisers in control early on. Alexa Stonehouse, on one, was the first of Coppack’s four victims, bowled with a ball that swung back and hit the top of the off stump. Paige Scholfield was bowled two balls later without scoring, to a ball that swung even more.
While Coppack bowled with control at one end, runs were still possible elsewhere, and after Bryony Smith was run out for 11, the Stars started to rebuild. They relied heavily on 93 from the bat of Alice Davidson-Richards, a fourth consecutive score of over 70, which shows how important she is to the Stars’ cause.
Things were starting to look up for the Stars with a fifth partnership of 70 between Davidson-Richards and Aylish Cranstone. It took a smart piece of bowling from Jodi Grewcock, the young leg-spinner to dismiss Cranston’s for 30 and she was left hobbling off.
The sixth wicket added another 50 and Stars looked like they could have batted themselves back into the game before Coppack returned to the action, bowling Phoebe Franklin for 33. Davidson-Richards needed the tail to help bat out the rest of the innings as she approached what would have been a well-deserved century. However she played around a Mady Villiers delivery when on 93 and had to make the long trudge off, having fallen lbw so close to reaching triple figures.
The Stars’ innings ran out of steam as they were bowled out for 212, with Tilly Corteen-Coleman one of three players to be run out.
There was an early scare for the Sunrisers when Jo Gardner was lbw to a ball that never got up and she was gone for a first-ball duck. Cordellia Griffith replaced her in the middle and raced out of the blocks to help put the Sunrisers well in front of the DLS par score and ensure that they didn’t have to do anything stupid to win as the rain started to drift in.
The only controversy was when Griffith was given out to a low catch by Schofield from the bowling of Kalea Moore for 57. Scrivens batted calmly and was 39 not out when the rains eventually arrived. For the next hour, it rained constantly, and with puddles forming on the outfield, there was no chance that the players would get back on the field, and the curtain slowly dropped on the regional era.
