Central Sparks bowled out for 83 en route to eight-wicket loss
Southern Vipers 85 for 2 (Wyatt 45) beat Central Sparks 83 (Dean 5-19) by eight wickets
A confident Southern Vipers side ignited their Charlotte Edwards Cup campaign with an eight-wicket victory over Central Sparks, who were bowled out for 83 in a double-header at Edgbaston.
Charlotte Dean took five wickets for just 19 runs in an impressive restrictive bowling performance by the Vipers which sealed Sparks’ fate, despite the best efforts of Marie Kelly and Emily Arlott in their 39-run partnership.
The visitors won the toss and chose to bowl and made the most of putting Sparks into bat. It was a tight start by Vipers, as Sparks reached 24 for 3 in the first seven overs. Eve Jones fell in the second over, bowled by Tara Norris, then Thea Brookes was Dean’s first victim, caught for 2 and Gwen Davies was dismissed without scoring by Georgia Elwiss.
A crucial partnership between Kelly and Arlott did steady proceedings for Sparks, as they began to open up the attack and find the boundary. Although the partnership came to an end after 39 runs, with Kelly being caught for 36 as Sparks collapsed from 63 for 3 to 83 all out in the space of five overs.
Elwiss took two wickets in an over, dismissing Issy Wong and Ria Fackrell, both without scoring, followed by Dean taking four wickets in 10 balls to conclude the Sparks innings. Arlott’s vital innings came to an end, caught for 22, followed by Chloe Hill trapped lbw for 14 as Clare Boycott and Hannah Baker were dismissed quickly to give Dean match winning figures of 5 for 19.
Southern Vipers chased down the total of 83 in comfortable fashion, as a 66-run partnership between Wyatt and Maia Bouchier guided them to victory. Sparks looked to be off to the ideal start, as Arlott dismissed Georgia Adams in the first over, but Vipers controlled the chase to emerge victorious.