Kiwi County Tour: Women's T20 Super League #2
Watch out.
The sleeping beast that was Amy Satterthwaite has awoken on the Kiwi County Tour and it seems as though there is a Southern Vipers curse as all the other kiwi cricketers are putting in solid shifts, except the Vipers kiwi trio of Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr and Sara McGlashan. I am writing this straight after the Yorkshire Diamonds vs Southern Vipers game (game 14) and Surrey Stars vs Loughborough Lightning featuring Sophie Devine (game 13).
I couldn't get around to updating the Kiwi County Tour during the week, so I'm squeezing in an update here and will drop another one in the next few days to wrap up the weekend's fixtures. The first update, in which I dove into Satterthwaite's strange struggles covered games 1-5, this update covers games 6-14 and hopefully, depending on what's happening in the sporting world, I should be able to get funky with slightly more frequent updates.
Satterthwaite got funky right after the previous KCT update, hitting 57 off 34 balls in Lancashire Thunder's win over Yorkshire Diamonds. Batting #4, Satterthwaite let the way as the Thunder put up 134/4 and then defended it, Yorkshire all out for 101.
Lancashire won all three games during this period. After a win over Yorkshire in game 6, they beat up Southern Vipers in game 8 with Satterthwaite chiming in with a solid 20 off 18 balls, bumping Lancashire up to 137/6 from their 20 overs. Despite 40 off 36 from Suzie Bates, Lancashire snatched a win away from the Vipers, restricting them to 133/9 in 20 overs.
Satterthwaite could only manage 3 off 6 in Lancashire's third win in game 11 vs Surrey Stars. Chasing 149 to win, Sattertwhaite batted #3 but in was the other three batters in the top order that did the business for Lancashire and they chased down their target only losing 5 wickets and with a ball to spare.
Three wins and scores of 57, 20 and 3 for Satterthwaite. That's a timely boost for the Thunder and both of Satterthwaite's 20+ scores came with strike-rates over 100.
It's been a different story for Southern Vipers, who lost both their games before today's game. Bates did get a nice score in game 8 vs Lancashire and took 1w in 3ov @ 6.33rpo, while Amelia Kerr took 1w in 4ov @ 7.50rpo. Kerr and Sara McGlashan were part of a Vipers middle order that couldn't continue Bates' strong start though with McGlashan scoring 9 off 12 and Kerr getting a 4-ball duck.
The Vipers then lost to Western Storm in game 10. They were rolled for 91 by the Storm, which did feature some runs for McGlashan (31 off 30) and Kerr (11 off 15), while Bates got 7 off 14. Rachel Priest made the Vipers pay for their low score, smacking 30 off 14 balls at the top of the order for Western (214.28sr) and the game was all but over when Priest was dismissed in the 4th over.
Priest has been on riding a smacking wave as she hit 25 off 13 in game 9 (192.30sr), in a 6 over game vs Loughborough. Western set a target of 86 from 6 overs and although Loughborough didn't lose a wicket, with Sophie Devine chiming in on the big hitting, scoring 46 off 21 (219.04sr), Loughborough could only manage 67 from their 6 overs.
That's two wins for Western Storm in their two games during the week, led by two brutal knocks from Priest. Remember that Priest was dropped from the White Ferns squad late last year and while she hasn't gone large with a big score, knocks of 30 and 25 with strike-rates over 190 is enough to put the Storm in dominant positions.
Devine got some runs opening the batting in that loss to Western Storm, but it's her bowling that has been the highlight so far, apart from the 19 runs she conceded from 1 over vs Western. Devine got back on track with the ball immediately though, taking 2w @ 4.75rpo in 4 overs to help Loughborough defend 144 in game 12 vs Yorkshire.
Starting with 30 off 24, Devine had a strong all-round game and her contributions with bat and ball have been immense through the Super League. In these two games, Devine hit a 46 with 219.04sr and then 30 @ 125sr along with 2w and Devine is currently tied for the leading wicket-taker on 9w @ 9.55avg/5.79rpo and 2nd in runs; 159 runs @ 53avg/155.88sr. Devine is joined by two other Loughborough bowlers on 9w.
Those statistics were nicely boosted by another dominant display from Devine as she smoked 61* off 32 balls (190.62sr) in Loughborough's win over Surrey. With the ball, Devine helped roll Surrey for 95 with 1w @ 4rpo in 3 overs and then made light work of the run chase, reach the target of 96 in just 10 overs.
Devine started the Super League on fire with the ball, taking 3w in each of the first two games. The next three games have seen Devine sizzle with the bat; 46*, 30 and 61*.
Southern Vipers put in a far better performance against Yorkshire, but still fell short and suffered their third defeat of the week. Kerr took 2w @ 6.75rpo and Bates 1w @ 8.25rpo, both bowling 4 overs as Yorkshire finished up 175/5 from their 20 overs. The Vipers run chase got off to a strong start via 34 off 22 from Bates and even though McGlashan hit 21 off 20 and Kerr hit 26* off 18, Southern were left stranded on 163/9 from their 20 overs.
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Peace and love 27.