Northern Superchargers 146 for 4 (Sutherland 63*, Litchfield 44) beat Oval Invincibles 64 (Sutherland 4-11) by 82 runs
The powerful Australian made 63 from 40 balls to take her team to an imposing total of 146 for 4, before taking 4 for 11 with the ball to wrap up the win. Her four wickets were all clean bowled, and came from the last six balls of the match to ensure it was a game very much defined by her abilities.
After a loss and a tie, Sutherland’s heroics provided Hollie Armitage’s team with their first win of the campaign and further opened up the table in a year that has seeing every team lose at least once.
“It is so nice to get a win on the board,” Sutherland. “I don’t think we were that far off last game with the tie. We’ve felt pretty good as a group. We’ve bowled very well, we just haven’t quite put it together with the bat, so it was nice to do it out there.”
Needing a win, Davina Perrin set the tone for the Superchargers with two early boundaries – and though her stay was a short one, caught superbly by Amanda-Jade Wellington off the bowling of Rachel Slater, her aggression gave an indication of what was to come from the visitors.
Oval Invincibles’ 100 per cent record in the competition so far would have given them hope of chasing down Superchargers’ 146, and so too would the introduction of Chamari Athapaththu, the Sri Lankan skipper making her first appearance in this year’s competition after her country’s Asia Cup success.
But Athapaththu wasn’t to last long, dismissed on the 20th ball of the innings, caught smartly by Kate Cross off the bowling off Linsey Smith. Two balls later, Invincibles were five down when Cross bowled Mady Villiers, the second of her two wickets having earlier trapped Winfield-Hill in front.
Smith also accounted for Alice Capsey, with Marizanne Kapp undone by a run-out, and at 23 for 5 the contest was as good as done.
Paige Scholfield and Wellington re-built for Invincibles, without ever threatening Superchargers’ total, and then Sutherland returned to take four in six and put Superchargers on the board.