Sparks ignite campaign with nervy finish at Edgbaston
There were times during the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy match at Edgbaston where North West Thunder looked dead and buried. But although Central Sparks won by four wickets with six overs to spare, it felt much closer.
It was a tough day for the batters on both sides, on a well-used but decent looking pitch. Thunder were struggling from the very first ball when Laura Marshall could only look back in horror as Issy Wong rearranged her stumps.
It got much worse for Thunder before it got better. Georgie Boyce drilled a shot straight to Gwenan Davies at point and Thunder were two down without a run on the board. Wong was now in full flow as Emma Lamb and Ellie Threlkeld looked desperately to steady things.
Arlott was the perfect partner for Wong, bowling tight lines to allow Wong to run in at pace. It paid off as Wong bowled Threlkeld for seven and then got one to climb on Lamb, who found Arlott at deep fine leg.
Thunder were 18 for 4 and desperate for some restpite. As on Saturday against Lightning, it came in the form of Sophie Ecclestone and Nat Brown. A stand of 35 was never likely to turn the match but it allowed Thunder to set their sights on triple figures.
Brown not only batted sensibly, she was able to find the boundary - scoring four fours from Wong’s seventh over. Her knock of 35 was the second-highest of the innings. It was down to Kate Cross to guide a young lower order as close to the 50-over mark as possible.
It was hard work at times, Olivia Thomas was batting in only her second List A innings and she played a watchful knock of 16 not out from 72 balls. While it was hardly a flowing innings, it enabled Cross to score 45 and Thunder limped to a total of 135 in the 47th over.
On a worn pitch and with an experienced attack, Thunder still had something to work with. The two Joneses, Eve and Amy, set about the chase with intent - both finding early boundaries to settle the nerves - and by the end of the eighth over Central Sparks were 28 without loss.
Brown made the breakthrough in the next over, trapping Amy Jones lbw for 12. Eve Jones was eating into the runs needed with regularity before she fell to Alex Hartley’s second ball. By this time, Sparks needed 87 more runs from 238 balls. Ecclestone and Hartley started to settle into a grove and the runs dried up, Davies scoring just a single from eighteen balls.
Despite the miserly bowling, particularly from the spinners, Kelly saw Sparks home thanks to an unbeaten 59 from 99 balls. With three of the sides in the group having registered wins in the first two rounds, it will be interesting to see just how the group shapes up. With the England players about to go back into the bubble, it could be an exciting group to follow.
