After an unprecedented 20,000 spectators turned out for England's Ashes T20 at Edgbaston on Saturday night, normality was restored a short drive down the road on Sunday at Worcester, as the proverbial man and his dog watched Sparks defend 233 to beat Thunder.
Under heavy skies, Thunder's bowlers had the better of the early exchanges, with Sparks openers Eve Jones and Bethan Ellis bowled by Tara Norris and Mahika Gaur respectively. Erin Burns brought a little impetus to proceedings, but by the end of the powerplay she too was back in the pavilion, spooning a pretty innocuous delivery from Gaur to Deandra Dottin on the ring at backward point, leaving Sparks an anaemic 32-3 at the 10 over mark.
But Ami Campbell (68) and Abbey Freeborn (67) steadied the ship with a game-changing partnership which ultimately reached 139. It was somewhat attritional cricket early on, with Campbell and Freeborn digging out the runs at 4/5 per over, while Thunder's attack toiled without making the breakthrough as Sparks reached 105-3 at drinks.
It was until after the 30th over, with Campbell and Freeborn both having passed 50, that the pair started to cut loose, upping the run-rate to more than 8 per over. But both were dismissed in the space of 4 balls – first Campbell, stumped in slightly strange circumstances after failing to connect with a Tara Norris bouncer; then Freeborn bowled by Laura Jackson; whilst in-between, Davina Perrin also came and went LBW to Norris for a golden duck.
This left Sparks' tail with an uphill task to post a decent total, but a decent 33 off 36 balls from Charis Pavely was the key to them reaching 233-10, bowled out off the final ball of the innings.
In reply, Seren Smale looked to play positively from the start, finding the boundary 3 times in Katie George's opening over, which went for 15; but at the other end her opening partner Naomi Dattani was having a nightmare which culminated in a 12-ball duck as she was bowled through the gate by Georgia Davis.
Thunder looked well-placed at the 20-over mark with Smale having passed 50 in the previous over, and Deandra Dottin going at a run a ball; but after being dropped off the first ball of the 20th over, Dottin was adjudged LBW off the second for 21 off 23 balls.
Smale carried Thunder's hopes through to the 39th over, but having batted for over two hours and worked her way to 94 off 125 balls, she played a tired club off Katie George, and watched in despair as it fell into the reliable hands of Eve Jones at mid on.
With the required rate having climbed to 6.6 runs per over going into the final 10, Thunder didn't have time to hang around, but needed to balance that against having only 4 wickets in hand. That soon became 3 when Liberty Heap edged George to Freeborn behind the stumps, exposing the Thunder tail, which lasted until the 49th over when a smashing diving catch by Dive-ina Perrin ended things with Thunder 30 short on 204 all out.
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