Lightning vs Southern Vipers

Cricket ball

By Ben Lumley

Lightning take on Southern Vipers in the final game of the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Going into the last group game of the Charlotte Edwards Cup, Lightning carried confidence from their last performance against Central Sparks. Captain Kirstie Gordon won the toss and elected to bat first. Lightning were looking to finish their campaign with a victory, while Vipers needed a victory to confirm their place at Finals Day. The familiar partnership of Odedra and Harmer opened the batting for Lightning, Harmer faced five balls before being caught in the deep by Monaghan in the third over. Odedra fell an over later after being caught similarly to Harmer but this time by Elwiss, this left Lightning 28-2 in the powerplay. Things got worse for Lightning with Higham being trapped LBW by Lauren Bell without scoring. Freeborn and Teresa Graves provided some stability for Lightning and developed a partnership before Freeborn advanced down the wicket to attack Elwiss’ delivery and was stumped for 27. Pai and Graves were next to be dismissed bring Gordon and Claridge to the crease to try and help Lightning post a reasonable score. Both found the boundary with Gordon clearing the rope off a free hit for 6. Both Claridge and Gordon added 20 runs a piece to the Lightning total, with Munro adding another 5 runs late on. After 20 overs Lightning finished on 124.

Lightning started brightly by picking up the wicket of in-form Georgia Adams in the fourth over as she was caught by Harman off the bowling of Gordon. Lightning struggled to find a breakthrough but were restricting the Vipers run chase effectively. Tara Norris was the next to be dismissed by Yvonne Graves leaving Vipers 57-2 in the ninth over. Vipers reached the 100-run mark in 16 overs leaving them just 25 off the last four overs. Georgia Elwiss was dismissed not long after by a Freeborn stumping off the bowling of Gordon. Despite taking the chase to the final over Paige Scholfield provided Vipers with the winning runs to secure their place at Finals Day.

Lightning’s attention turns to their Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign where they currently sit 4th in the table. Lightning face South-East Stars on the 10th September in a vital 4th vs 5th tie.