Finals time for our Kiwi County Tour ladies and with Sophie Devine's Loughborough Lightning already in the final, along with Rachel Priest's Western Storm in the semi-final, we could be treated to a KCT match up come grand final time.  Western Storm will face Surrey Stars in the semi on Monday and the final is the following day, while it's a wrap for Amy Satterthwaite, Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr and Sara McGlashan.

There were three games last weekend, starting with Lancashire Thunder vs Southern Vipers and it was a fairly easy win for Satterthwaite over the kiwi Vipers. Satterthwaite hit 27 off 27 batting #3 to help the Thunder reach 162/3 and Kerr was the only wicket-taker for the kiwis, taking 1w @ 9.25rpo while Bates conceded 9.33rpo off her 3 overs.

Chasing 163 to win, Satterthwaite pegged Bates lbw for 11 (off 10) and Southern were all out for 153. Kerr hit 5 off 4 and McGlashan hit 25 off 19, Satterthwaite finished with 2w from just 1.4ov @ 8.40rpo. That performances sums up the season for the Vipers and it's safe to say that this has been a disappointing campaign for the usually dominant Bates, along with the kiwi Vipers crew.

Despite losing to Yorkshire Diamonds, Devine and her Lightning still gained an automatic final spot. Devine was at her solid all-round best, taking 1w in 3ov @ 8.33rpo as Yorkshire reached 148/6 from their 20 overs and Devine then hit 22 off 16 (137.50sr) which wasn't enough to get Loughborough over the line; they were left stranded on 145/6 chasing 149.

That's a reasonably standard game for Devine based on what she's done so far in the Super League. Solid, but not her best and if she is able to score 30+ runs and take 2+ wickets, Loughborough will be very hard to beat. 

Priest will be a key batter for Western, someone who Devine would love to dismiss cheaply. Priest hit 30 off 20 (150sr) in Western's loss to Surrey Stars, helping Western score 158/5 which was chased down by the Stars. Priest took a couple of stumpings as well and as Western have some serious firepower in their batting line up via the two best run-scorers in Smriti Mandhana (174.68sr) and Hearther Knight (133.06sr), so Priest doesn't need to go bonkers.

The focus for Priest will be her strike-rate. A score of 15+ with a strike-rate over 120 will get Western on the front foot in their semi-final against Surrey and Priest just has to do her job, to help lay that foundation for the others. I'll do a full debrief for all KCT players in the Super League after the final, so keep an eye out for that and until then, hope for a Priest vs Devine match up for the final.

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Peace and love 27.