Surrey, The Blaze and Bears will go head to head in the first-ever Vitality Blast women's competition Finals Day this Sunday, and you can be there too.
As featured in Sunday's matchday programme, Alex Smith reviews the story of the Vitality Blast women's competition - which featured massive crowds, tumbling records and some shock results.
Start with a bang
Sunny weather, double-header crowds, runs galore, an A-list cast, drama… all the ingredients for the perfect set of curtain raisers for a new competition. The opening day of the Vitality Blast women’s competition had a bit of everything.
Hampshire Hawks brought the runs, 215 in total as Maia Bouchier (92) and Ella McCaughan (68) made hay on a batter’s paradise at Utilita Bowl – it was the ground’s fifth largest domestic T20 total (men or women). Essex got “only” 190 in response.
Surrey opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge brought the power as her unbeaten 53 and England team-mate Paige Scholfield’s 63 downed Somerset.
But the greatest tension came at Trent Bridge. The Blaze, Charlotte Edwards Cup holders – the previous professional women’s T20 competition – still needed nine of the 161 runs Bears had set them. Sarah Bryce carved Issy Wong’s second ball of the final over through point to make it a run a ball required but she skied the penultimate (slower) ball to mid-off to make it two from the last. New Zealander Maddy Green got bat on ball but was run out coming back for a second. A tie… and the tone had been set.
Mc attack (part 1)
68, 68*, 81, 4 and 106. No, not the lottery numbers but Ella McCaughan’s incredible set of scores before she got injured.
McCaughan had been a regular for Southern Vipers but a winter churning runs in Australia and then dominating in the Metro Bank One Day Cup catapulted her name into England conversations.
Becoming the first woman to score a Vitality Blast century – firing the ball all around Chelmsford with poise and timing – wrote the 22-year-old into the competition’s embryonic folklore.
“That was one of the good days,” said McCaughan. “I had some luck early and just tried to cash in. I didn’t really expect to make a hundred to be honest.”
Other young batters who made a name for themselves: the Bears’ ever-classy Davina Perrin and Thunder’s big-hitting Ailsa Lister.
Mac attack (part 2)
Esmae MacGregor keeps things simple – all she wants to do is keep the stumps in play.
As such, the Essex pace bowler was the leading wicket-taker of the group stage with 21 wickets.
Her threat didn’t come from express speed. In fact, the need for the batter to generate their own power tied with her unerring accuracy has made MacGregor a menace to face.
She began the summer finishing her degree in international business, but her true first-class honours was a four for eight against Somerset.
The Harris hitters
Australian sisters Grace and Laura Harris aren’t your normal batters. Where the average cricketer “sees ball, hits ball”, the Harris sisters “see ball, whack ball into the neighbouring premises”.
Older sibling Laura plundered a 16-ball fifty on her Bears debut, before dispatching a 19-ball one a few days later.
Grace, left, names her bats after burgers and also has two half-centuries for Surrey, plus ten wickets. Both have brought entertainment wherever they’ve been.
Perry and co (the overseas)
The Harris duo weren’t the only overseas players to have graced the Blast this summer. Alana King took 16 wickets for Lancashire Thunder, Amanda-Jade Wellington was Somerset’s linchpin with bat and ball, and Suzie Bates was exceptional at the top of the order for Durham.
But there was one name everyone was desperate to see: Ellyse Perry. She turned up for Hampshire Hawks in the second half of the group stage, after Charli Knott had been extraordinary in the first half.
Arguably the greatest female cricketer of all time, Perry took a wicket with her first ball, and scored a boundary with the first ball she faced while batting to underline her superstardom.
Beaumont and the record chase
Some days you pile on 188 and assume that will be enough for a comfortable win. Durham did just that against The Blaze, but didn’t count on Tammy Beaumont to punch back.
Beaumont struck 81 off 44 balls, with Kathryn Bryce, Georgia Elwiss and Heather Graham also contributing to reach the target with an over to spare – setting a new record women’s T20 chase in England.
Shake it off
Somerset may have only won a single match in their own cruel summer – beating Essex at their tenth attempt. But they did top the table in one impressive metric… they had the biggest crowd for a non-double header.
A crowd of 2,328 descended on the Cooper Associates County Ground in Taunton and were
treated to three wickets for Kate Cross, four for Charlie Dean, and Forever Swift – a Taylor Swift tribute act that played after the match.
Hampshire Hawks flew highest in the double headers as they had a love story with their clientele.
All four matches paired with Vitality Blast men’s fixtures drew crowds of more than 3,000. Not many blank spaces there…
It never rained, then it poured
The competition has been blessed by consistently hot weather, but on the rare occasions it has rained, the DLS rain rule has provided some thrillers.
The rain was always coming at Arundel for Hawks vs Durham, and when the visitors started bowling, it was clear it was coming fast.
Hampshire had the benefit of knowing the par score needed but completely botched things. They needed 35 to win, two wickets down, by the end of the sixth over. At the start of that over they were on 30 in the drizzle.
That drizzle got heavier but they managed only three runs before the umpires took them off in a deluge at the end of the over. They lost by one run.
Surrey and Essex’s rain-affected clash at the Kia Oval was even tighter. The home side reached 159 before rain in the interval translated that to 94 needed in ten overs. At 60-1 things were going swimmingly for Essex but wickets fell and things spiralled.
Grace Harris bowled the last, with eight needed, took two wickets and with a run-out off the last ball, conceded only seven runs, resulting in a tie.
Super Sunday
Surrey booked their place at today’s showpiece on Friday 11 July after beating The Blaze, but Bears and The Blaze qualified within hours of each other two days later.
Davina Perrin had shrugged off a wobble around her to score 70, before a spin-bowling masterclass from Hannah Baker, Georgia Davis and Millie Taylor stifled Hampshire.
Perrin didn’t realise her Bears had progressed until being told in her post-match interview. Her response, a sincerely elated: “Oh my goodness.”
While The Blaze defended 139 thanks to their own spin clinic with Sarah Glenn and Kirstie Gordon sharing seven against Essex.
Tickets are available here.
This article features in Sunday's matchday programme, which can be bought here.