South East Stars win again to stretch lead at top
South East Stars made it three Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy wins out of three as Ryana MacDonald-Gay’s 4-18 helped her side to a 71-run Duckworth-Lewis-Stern win over Central Sparks.
The Maidstone-born seamer took her season’s tally to 12 wickets after Paige Scholfield (65) and Tash Farrant (54) had given the Stars a winning platform at Beckenham.
Hannah Baker finished with career-best figures of 5-45 as the hosts faltered from 230-3 to 268 all out.
But that proved way beyond the Sparks, who never seriously recovered after slumping from 56-2 to 58-6, before reaching 119-6 when play was abandoned.
Southern Vipers made it two wins from three as they ended a winning start to the season for Northern Diamonds.
Ella McCaughan hit a half-century – 83 off 97 balls - to take her past 1,000 runs for the Vipers, while Charli Knott continued her fine start to life in the UK with 40 – as the hosts made 287-9 at Southampton.
Charlie Dean then took 4-34 as Diamonds stuttered in response before Lauren Winfield-Hill (63) and Erin Burns (45) steered them to 162-7 - 70 runs short of the DLS target of 232.
Western Storm clinched their first win after beating Thunder by 66 runs at Old Trafford.
Storm made 252-6 from their 50 overs after a superb exhibition of spin bowling by Sophie Ecclestone (3-16) had threatened to derail their innings, Sophie Luff making an unbeaten 76.
That proved to be enough as Thunder subsided to 186 all out off 42.4 overs with Sophia Smale and Chloe Skelton taking three wickets apiece.
Sunrisers raced to a seven-wicket win over The Blaze in a rain-shortened 42-over encounter at Chelmsford.
Former England white-ball international Mady Villers took 3-18 from nine overs as the visitors, missing Tammy Beaumont, Kathryn and Sarah Bryce and the injured Georgie Boyce were routed for 87.
Sunrisers suffered a couple of early setbacks, but skipper Grace Scrivens’ unbeaten 46 saw Sunrisers home in the 21st over, with Villiers fittingly making the winning runs.
