Lancashire openers Meg Lanning (34 off 15 balls) and Eve Jones (57 off 38) led an exhilarating but stress-free chase as their team completed their second win in eight games, with 17 balls remaining. Their slim quarter-final hopes are alive, but Yorkshire’s are all but over after a seventh defeat.
With Yorkshire at 74-1, Thunder hit back with wickets in successive overs for emerging spinners Weerappuli and Sophie Morris – 81-3 in the eighth. Weerappuli then had a sweeping Campbell caught at backward square-leg off a top-edge.
From there, the White Rose struggled as Weerappuli bowled Sterre Kalis for 22, and trapped a sweeping Olivia Thomas lbw.
All of a sudden, Yorkshire were scrambling to reach 150, which they managed to do, but Lancashire definitely had the advantage heading into a chase which started in a similar fashion to how Yorkshire’s had.
Australian overseas signing Lanning had a scare on eight when she pulled Hannah Rainey out to deep square-leg, the ball parried over the rope for six by Claudie Cooper.
Lanning hit a straight six and three fours off Cooper’s off-spin as 19 came from the fourth over. But she fell, caught behind cutting at the end of it, with the score 46-1.
Left-hander Jones, who hit seven fours and two sixes in all, drilled Beth Langston’s seam down the ground for six shortly before reaching her 50 off 31 balls.
Jones dominated a second-wicket partnership of 68 with Emma Lamb, who contributed 22.
And not even their departures to the seam of Rainey and Jess Woolston – 116-3 in the 13th over – could derail Thunder, for whom new England Test wicketkeeper-batter Ellie Threlkeld finished 28 not out.
Warwickshire Bears posted a third successive Vitality Blast win as they eased to a five-wicket victory over Essex at Edgbaston.
Essex could only manage 116-8 from their innings, having elected to bat first, and they found themselves 31-4 by the end of the powerplay, which included just two boundaries – the first of those only came after 23 deliveries.
Amu Surenkumar (3-22) led the way with the ball as the Bears tore through the visiting top order and, despite the efforts of Jo Gardner and Liberty Heap, who put on 51 in the middle overs, Essex never truly recovered from the early damage.
The Bears, in reply, surrendered wickets in their powerplay too, but thanks in no small part to the steady nerves displayed by Georgia Redmayne (43 not out from 41 balls) and despite the efforts of Eva Gray (3-29) with the ball, they reached their target with time to spare.
Warwickshire’s Em Arlott, who only made her return to action after a two-month injury absence on Sunday, struck with her first ball to remove Alice Macleod and then she took a smart catch to dismiss Bryony Gillgrass.
Michaela Kirk and Anneke Bosch both departed to Surenkumar within five balls, and progress proved slow initially for Gardner (33 from 32 balls) and Heap (23 from 24), who had Essex 45-4 at the midway stage.
Gardner took the initiative from there and sent Surenkumar to the boundary twice in as many balls to bring up a 49-ball half-century partnership, prompting hope in the Essex camp that the pair could nudge the visitors up to a defendable score.
Just as they were planning to accelerate in the final throes, Bears captain Georgia Davis successfully appealed for an lbw to claim the wicket of Gardner and, a couple of deliveries later, she tempted Heap into popping the ball into the safe hands of Georgia Redmayne at point.
Those wickets firmly put the brakes back on Essex’s innings, bookended by collapses either side of the stabilising partnership, though there were lower-order runs which came from the bat of Sophie Munro (22 no from 18 balls) to push Essex up to a meagre-looking total of 116.
Gray struck again to dismiss Arlott (9) and then castled Surenkumar (8) when she failed in her attempts to scoop over the shoulder of keeper Ariana Dowse, but Chloe Brewer (15 no from 12 balls) and Redmayne completed the job thereafter with minimal fuss and with five wickets and four overs to spare.
Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.
