The sun may have set on women’s regional cricket, but Sunrisers pulled off a fairytale win at the last, defeating South East Stars by 27 runs with a little help from Duckworth-Lewis-Stern. Sunrisers, who have spent three seasons as the competition’s perennial losers, unable to win a game, lifted the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at Leicester on Saturday in their final attempt.
Lightning forced the teams off the field 25 overs into Sunrisers’ chase, and torrential rain shortly followed, making further play impossible. The rain came at a fortunate moment for Sunrisers, just after off-spinner Kalea Moore took two wickets in four overs – Cordelia Griffith driving into the hands of extra cover, Jodi Grewcock bunting a return catch – leaving them 121 for three at the halfway point of their chase. However, a sweetly struck half-century from Griffith and a sensible, unbeaten 39 from captain Grace Scrivens ensured they were well ahead of the DLS par. Loud cheers erupted from their dressing room as the umpires announced the result.
The match marked the end of five seasons of regional cricket, which is being discontinued partly due to consistently poor crowds. Only 200 people were present to witness Sunrisers’ triumph and the very soggy end of an era. Aware of the weather forecast, Scrivens chose to bowl first, risking Stars – who have one of the most powerful batting line-ups – racking up an enormous total. Her bowlers rose to the occasion: Kate Coppack took career-best figures of four for 27, shattering the stumps of Alexa Stonehouse, Paige Scholfield, and Phoebe Franklin with a combination of swing and seam movement, reducing Stars to 21 for three in the first six overs.
Alice Davidson-Richards followed up her match-winning 90 in the semi-final with 93 here, finishing as the competition’s leading run-scorer with 650 runs. But she was trapped leg-before by Mady Villiers, and Scrivens sent down 8.2 overs of off-spin, conceding 21 runs as Sunrisers bowled Stars out for 212 in 46.2 overs. Away from cricket, the 30-year-old Coppack is an employment lawyer; on Saturday, she handed notice to Stonehouse and Scholfield within the space of three balls, bowling Scholfield with a hooping inswinger, before returning for a second spell to have the dangerous-looking Kira Chathli adjudged lbw.
Coppack was also instrumental in the run-out of the Stars captain, Bryony Smith. Back from a spell opening the batting for England against Ireland, Smith wandered down the pitch, only to be sent back by Davidson-Richards; Coppack fielded a slightly wonky throw-in from Villiers at midwicket and frantically dived, ball in hand, to remove the bails. Sunrisers faced the prospect of a nervous chase but Griffith calmly continued her recent purple patch of four half-centuries in her past five matches as Sunrisers pulled off a magical win.
