Women's One-Day Cup: Warwickshire Women v Kent Women
It was a bitterly cold day in London as the Bears started the match coming back from a defeat the day before at Sussex, losing by just one wicket.
Hoping for a win, the Bears started off positively with some excellent batting from Amy Jones and Bethan Ellis to help the team reach 232 all out on the last delivery. This wasn’t enough unluckily as Kent were able to chase that down in 40.4 overs with seven wickets remaining, thanks to England batter Tammy Beaumont.
Captain Marie Kelly won the toss and chose to put the away team into bat first, sending out England’s Jones and Ellis to start the scoring. A brilliant spell of batting from both women saw a remarkable 107 run partnership emerge, with Jones scoring 67 and Ellis 32. Two wickets in the same over for Laura Marsh unfortunately saw the end of Jones as well as Kathryn Bryce (0) three balls later for a lbw.
Kelly came and went for 13 runs in 24 balls with some skillful running, bringing in Thea Brookes to help Ellis add to the scoring. This allowed Ellis to get her first half century of the season from 77 balls before falling victim on 74 to Marsh, one of her five wickets (10-0-36-5). Four wickets in the space of 12 balls helped put the pressure on the team to keep on scoring.
The double century for Warwickshire soon came however in 260 balls but some seriously good fielding, including catches from Beaumont, limited the Bears to 232 all out, Liz Russell being stumped last ball.
Warwickshire put on their best fielding efforts to restrict Kent as much as they could, as the hosts raced to 50 in the opening 6.1 overs. The first wicket fell at 55-1 in the 7th over but the next didn’t arrive until the 32nd. A partnership of 125 was put on by Beaumont and Fran Wilson, dashing any hopes of an easy hunt for the Bears.
Laura Croft got the wicket Warwickshire so desperately needed sending Beaumont back to the pavilion, caught and bowled by for 87 from 103 balls, with eight fours. This didn’t put a stop to the run chase however as Wilson and Maxine Blythin made a 48 run partnership, which put Kent within touching distance of the 233 target.
Relentless boundaries falling through the cracks and risky running from Kent saw them win the match by seven wickets with nearly nine overs remaining.
On the first Women’s County Cricket Day, spectators were treated to the finest cricket both teams had to offer.
The Bears will next take on Yorkshire Women, at the Edgbaston Community Sports Ground on Sunday, hoping for their first win of the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup.