50 for Georgia but Stars come out on top

A century stand by Aylish Cranstone and Kalea Moore saw the South East Stars beat Western Storm by seven wickets in the Charlotte Edwards Trophy at Beckenham.

The Stars chased down the visitors’ 145 for six with an over remaining in the Group B fixture, closing on 148 for three.

Cranstone scored 66 not out from 49 balls, with six fours and put on an unbeaten 108 for the fourth wicket with Moore, who made 57 not out from balls, including five fours. Claire Nicholas took two for 17.

Georgia Hennessy was the Storm’s top scorer with 50 from 52 balls with six fours. Fellow opener Heather Knight was next highest with 35, while Bryony Smith took two for 22.

The Stars won the toss and chose to field, but they toiled for the first half of the innings, with the visitors reaching 49 without loss after the powerplay.

Yet having advanced to 81 without further loss the Storm stuttered, the breakthrough coming in the 12^th over when Knight was run out by Alice Davidson-Richards, who deflected a violent drive by Hennessy onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end, leaving the England captain stranded.

Hennessy brought up her 50 with a driven single off Smith, but she was out to the next ball she faced when she was caught and bowled by the same bowler. Smith then took her second wicket when she had Sophie Luff caught by Freya Davies for 12 at mid-on.

Danielle Gibson scored the first six of the match when she smashed Alice Capsey over cow corner, but she was out to the same bowler for 11, caught on the boundary by Phoebe Franklin. Fi Morris was then run out by Moore for seven and Davidson-Richards trapped Natasha Wraith lbw for five with the penultimate ball of the innings, leaving Katie George to hit the final ball to boundary to finish on four not out, alongside Fran Wilson, who was unbeaten on 15.

The Stars’ chase got off to a rocky start when Claire Nicholas claimed two wickets from successive balls in the fourth over. Smith was caught by Luff and Capsey bowled for a golden duck. The hosts were on 39 for two at the end of the powerplay and in the next over Franklin was caught for 8 when she hit Knight to Gibson.

Cranstone skied George’s final ball of the tenth over, but the chance was dropped, leaving the Stars on 72 for three at the halfway point. Smart running between the wickets helped Cranstone and Moore complete their 50 partnership and the game seemed to be drifting away from the visitors. Cranstone reached her half-century with a driven two from Nicholas and Moore passed the same landmark in the penultimate over with two off Hennessy.

Cranstone then hit the winning runs when she swept Hennessy for four with the final ball of the 19^th over.

At the close of play Hennessy said: “I think we posted just a below average total. With a couple of early wickets I thought we were really in it, but unfortunately we couldn’t quite get over the line at the end.

“The platform was there I think, it was just a bit disappointing for the girls because we have got the depth and the power, which we saw at Sunrisers the other night. It was disappointing we didn’t get a few more but it was a decent effort out there considering the batting line-up they’ve got.

“We spoke about what a par score would have been after the powerplay. 160 was what we were looking to get. It’s quite a big outfield and I think they ran between the wickets better than us. They took their twos quite well, pushed our fielders and put them under pressure. Par was about 160. Aylish played a very experienced innings, just knocking it around. She didn’t need to do anything dangerous. They did it quite comfortably in the end. but we did well to take it as deep as we could.”