Kiwi County Tour: Women's T20 Super League #3
The Kiwi County Tour bus is finally buzzing as Amy Satterthwaite and Sara McGlashan hit half-centuries, Rachel Priest whacked a few boundaries and Sophie Devine chimed in with more wickets in the Women's T20 Super League. Devine (Loughborough Lightning), Satterthwaite (Lancashire Thunder) and Priest (Western Storm) sit 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the table and despite McGlashan's fine contribution, Southern Vipers suffered another defeat and sit last, with just 1 win from their 6 games.
We start with Satterthwaite's Thunder losing to Priest's Storm and while Satterthwaite couldn't help get the win, her 85* from 57 balls did signal a return to her best. Satterthwaite smacked 11 fours and 3 sixes @ 149.12sr while no other Thunder batswoman passed 20, as Satterthwaite's knock bumped the Thunder up to a total of 153/7 from 20 overs.
Priest didn't contribute much to the Storm's chase, with 4 off 4. She didn't need to though as a centruy to Smriti Mandhana saw Western reach their target losing just 3 wickets and with 10 balls to spare. Satterthwaite did get a bowl as well, dismissing Mandhana after the damage was done.
After a lean start to the tournament, Satterthwaite now has two 50+ scores in 5inns and is 4th in Super League runs with 171 runs @ 57avg/137.90sr. That's slightly better than Devine, who now has 166 runs @ 41.50avg/152.29sr after adding 7 runs in Lougborough's win over Southern.
Devine did take her mandatory wickets, taking 2w in 4ov @ 8.50rpo including skittling the stumps of Amelia Kerr first ball. 55 off 28 balls from McGlashan saw the Vipers set a competitive target of 173 and with Devine only hitting 7 off 7, the Vipers missed a golden opportunity as the Lightning were still able to score freely and reached their target in 19.4ov. Kerr went wicket-less in her 4ov, conceding 9.25rpo and Bates took 1w in 3.5ov @ 10.36rpo.
2w for Devine has her top of the wicket-takers list rankings, with 11w @ 10.90avg/6.37rpo. Kerr is the next best kiwi bowler, 12th in wickets with 5w @ 29.20avg/6.21rpo.
The last game of the weekend saw Priest in action again and this time she resumed normal service with a typcially brutal knock to get the Storm rolling. Batting first, Yorkshire Diamonds scored 172/5 from their 20 overs and Priest hit 37 off 27 balls and along with Mandhana (56 off 36 ... after her century) they put on 101 for the first wicket to snatch the game away from Yorkshire.
Priest is only averaging 19.66 with the bat, but her average isn't all that important as she's there to have a crack. With a strike-rate of 149.36, Priest is doing exactly that and of the 16 players who have scored over 100 runs, Priest has the 3rd highest strike-rate; Devine is 2nd with 152.29sr and Priest's Storm comrade Mandhana has an almighty strike-rate of 183.69 and is the only player who has scored over 200, or 300 runs so far.
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Peace and love 27.