The Blaze 249 for 4 (K Bryce 87*, Beaumont 59) beat Sunrisers 245 (Griffith 65) by six wickets
Double-chasers The Blaze kept alive their chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy with a six-wicket win over Sunrisers at Derby, where they chased down a target of 246 with 39 balls to spare.
The result was a setback for Sunrisers, who started the day in third place in the group table, although the top-four finish they need to clinch their first semi-final appearance in the history of either of the women’s regional competitions remains in their hands with two matches left.
The Blaze have momentum after winning six of their last eight completed matches but will still need other results to go in their favour even if they win their two remaining fixtures.
Having opted to bat first on a green wicket after winning the toss, Sunrisers reached a solid 38 without loss before medium-pacer Bryce then removed Scrivens caught and bowled off a leading edge in the last over of the opening powerplay. Jo Gardner was then bowled off her front pad by Gordon as she sought to pull through midwicket.
Griffith and 19-year-old Jodi Grewcock regained the initiative for Sunrisers, adding 89 for the third wicket, Griffith completing a 55-ball fifty after hitting Groves for six and four as the leg-spinner conceded 14 from her opening over.
But Groves bounced back to have Grewcock leg before and picked up a second success as Mady Villiers top-edged to mid-on. Alice Macleod was run out thanks to Cassidy McCarthy’s smart work on the midwicket boundary.
Sunrisers had slipped from 135 for two to 162 for six as Gordon claimed the vital wicket of Griffith when what must have been an optimistic appeal for leg before was upheld.
Gray and Flo Miller bolstered the Sunrisers innings by adding an enterprising 60 in 11 overs before Miller (26) was bowled by Ballinger, her dismissal sparking a flurry of wickets in the final five overs as Gray, Kate Coppack and Amara Carr found fielders in the deep, all off Bryce.
Beaumont and Scotland wicketkeeper-batter Sarah Bryce provided a strong platform for The Blaze reply, putting 76 on the board before the latter was leg before playing back to off-spinner Villiers.
With the Sunrisers attack unable to build sustained pressure, Beaumont and Sarah Bryce had doubled the Blaze total almost by the halfway stage of their innings, at which point another 100 runs were needed exactly.
Beaumont departed lbw from 71 balls, having hit three fours and a six in a workmanlike performance, missing a pull shot against a ball from Gray that struck her very high on the left thigh.
Nonetheless, with 88 needed from 20 overs and eight wickets in hand, The Blaze were in control, even with Gray and leg spinner Abtaha Maqsood, in her first appearance of this year’s competition, beginning to apply some pressure. They lost Kelly, trapped in front as Gray claimed a second success, but still had plenty of batting to come.
Ireland’s Orla Prendergast was caught on the midwicket boundary but Claridge hurried things along with three fours in an over off Grewcock before Bryce, who had brought her skill and experience to bear in a superbly measured innings, hit the winning boundary.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo