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50s for Sophie and Bex but The Blaze come out on top
Sophie Luff and Bex Odgers made half centuries but it wasn’t enough to prevent The Blaze from coming out on top by four wickets with an over to spare in this Metro Bank One Day Cup clash at the Haslegrave Ground, Loughborough.
Visiting skipper Luff struck 72 from 76 balls, backed up by a Odgers (50 from 57) and a swashbuckling 25-ball 48 from Australian all-rounder Amanda-Jade Wellington as Somerset set their Trent Bridge-based opponents a tough challenge by posting 304 for seven in their 50 overs.
New Zealand batter Maddy Green hit 12 boundaries in a 90-ball 97 as The Blaze responded, sharing a 125-run second-wicket stand with Kathryn Bryce (59), but after her side had slipped to 238 for six, 33-year-old England all-rounder Georgia Elwiss brought all her experience into play as she and skipper Kirstie Gordon (25) shared an unbroken 67-run partnership to clinch victory.
Elwiss, who hit eight fours and faced 68 balls, batted despite suffering an injury fielding off her own bowling and spent the last 19 overs of the Somerset innings off the field receiving treatment.
Olivia Barnes took two for 49 on her Somerset debut.
Odgers and opening partner Emma Corney put on 88 for the first wicket as Somerset’s innings got off to a flying start. They were not parted until the the 17th overs, when Odgers was unlucky to be run out after Corney changed her mind over a single.
It was the 22-year-old Cornish-born batter’s second fifty in two innings in Somerset colours, making a good impression again after her 60 against Durham earlier in the month.
Leg-spinner Josie Groves was expensive but picked up an important wicket when Corney was stumped. Elwiss was rewarded for an excellent spell by having Fran Wilson (28) caught at mid-off from a slower ball, although her injury – picked up fielding off her own bowling – meant she spent the rest of the innings receiving treatment.
Grace Ballinger castled Katie Jones for eight but skipper Luff was the fulcrum for Somerset, the 69 added with Alex Griffiths (28) in 11 overs for the fifth wicket giving Somerset a platform to attack.
Griffiths was bowled when she missed a slog-sweep and Luff was caught at short fine leg, having hit seven fours and a six. But then came a blitz of hitting by Wellington, seven of whose nine boundaries before she was run out off the final ball came in Ballinger’s last three overs, which cost 37 runs.
The Blaze struggled for early momentum in response, Georgie Boyce running herself out looking for a single that Green understandably declined.
But Green and Kathryn Bryce found their range in the last three overs of the powerplay, turning 19 for one from seven into 50 for one from 10. Barnes, the former Kent left-arm spinner, claimed her maiden wicket for her new county as Bryce was bowled attempting to sweep.
The partnership had added 125 in 18.4 overs, Bryce’s fourth half-century of the competition having come off 47 balls with eight fours, Green’s first for The Blaze also containing eight fours off 51.
Now the momentum shifted back to Somerset.
A tidy spell from seamer Alex Griffiths was rewarded when Sarah Bryce, whom she had dropped on two in her follow-through, was bowled behind her legs, and though Green and Elwiss, at times in obvious pain from her injury, added another 47 for the fourth wicket, Somerset achieved the breakthrough they had been looking for when Green – in touching distance of a fifth List A hundred in this calendar year – was bowled by the returning Ellie Anderson.
The loss in the next over of Ella Claridge, whose top-edged sweep gave Barnes a second wicket, left The Blaze 203 for five in the 36th, still 102 short of their target, Wellington striking a further blow when the leg-spinner removed Michaela Kirk leg before.
But despite her discomfort, Elwiss took the responsibility for seeing her side over the line, a superbly judged innings giving her a third half-century in Blaze colours as she and skipper Kirstie Gordon completed the job.
After the match, Luff said: “It was a close game on a really great wicket. Maybe we didn’t have quite enough and we probably didn’t do quite enough at the end to restrict them.
“We thought that if we got 300 we would be in the game but a couple of their batters played really nicely. We bowled seven good overs in the powerplay but we found ourselves up against a couple of quality players in Green and Bryce and against players of that calibre you cannot afford to miss because they will punish you. We gave away a few loose balls towards the end of the powerplay that allowed them to get into their work.
“Had we taken a couple more wickets at that back end it could have been interesting but they managed it pretty well. Georgia Elwiss has a lot of experience behind her but we created a few chances in the field that we created as a bowling unit and that cost us in the end.”
