England’s Natalie Sciver hit the first Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy century as Northern Diamonds defeated Lightning by nine runs at Chester-le-Street.
Sciver made 104 off 116 balls as her side recovered from 24-4 to reach 226-9 and then restricted Lightning to 217-7.
South East Stars piled up 289-8, thanks largely to Sophia Dunkley’s 97, as they beat Sunrisers by 77 runs at Beckenham.
Southern Vipers overcame Western Storm as two of the favourites went head to head, and Central Sparks beat Thunder.
Northern Diamonds and Southern Vipers are the only teams with two wins out of two and head their respective regional groups.
The four teams in each group play each other twice, with the two who finish top contesting the final on Sunday, 27 September at Edgbaston.
Knight in the runs
Saturday’s opening round of matches were dominated by established England stars, and there were notable performances in the second round apart from Sciver’s innings, with national team skipper Heather Knight scoring 67 as Western Storm made a vain attempt to chase down a target of 262 against the Vipers.
The two teams contested three of the four Kia Super League finals before the T20 competition was mothballed following last year’s win by Storm, the only side to lift the trophy twice.
An opening stand of 105 in 19 overs between England opener Danni Wyatt (53) and skipper Georgia Adams (55) – their second successive century partnership – set the Vipers on their way to their score of 261-7.
Knight and Sophie Luff put on 130 in reply, the day’s biggest partnership, but figures of 4-45 by left-armer Tara Norris, who bowled Knight off the inside edge, meant Storm came up short
Bryce’s all-round excellence
Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce was unlucky to be on the losing side for Lightning as her opening spell of 4-16 from seven overs put the Diamonds on the back foot, only for Sciver to hit 13 fours in a superb display.
Tammy Beaumont (51) and Sarah Bryce (57) began with an opening stand of 117 and Kathryn then took up the run chase for her side.
Having to score 16 off the final over proved beyond them, but she followed her earlier figures of 5-29, with an unbeaten 71.
At Beckenham, Dunkley’s stand of 123 with Alice Davidson-Richards (61) was key to the huge total by South East Stars, but she was not the closest to a century in their game against Sunrisers, for whom skipper Amara Carr hit 99 off 113 balls before being stumped off Bryony Smith (3-25) as they were all out for 212.
The only low-scoring game was at Edgbaston where Issy Wong took 3-26 from her 10 overs as Thunder were all out for 135, and Central Sparks reached 136-6 with six overs to spare, thanks to Marie Kelly’s unbeaten 59.
Results and scorecards
Northern Diamonds (226-9) beat Lightning (217-7) by nine runs – scorecard
Thunder (135) lost to Central Sparks (136-6) by four wickets – scorecard
South East Stars (289-8) beat Sunrisers (212) by 77 runs – scorecard
Western Storm (261-7) lost to Southern Vipers (239) by 22 runs – scorecard
Coming next
Saturday, 5 September
- Worcester: Central Sparks v Thunder
- Leicester: Lightning v Northern Diamonds
- Hove: Southern Vipers v South East Stars
- Chelmsford: Sunrisers v Western Storm
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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