Northern Diamonds v Wesern Storm at Headingly June 16th

Neil Whitaker reports

THE  Northern Diamonds won only their second match in this year’s Charlotte Edwards cup as they beat Western Storm by 28 runs with Captain Hollie Armitage hitting 97.

Her 97 was  the highest score in this year’s competition and her highest score in the competition. With black clouds gathering and the prospect of heavy rain she tried to drive Chloe Skelton to the boundary but instead gave the bowler a simple return catch. She said: I wasn’t conscious of the rain coming. I just went back to what I was doing at the start of  my innings and tried to hit the ball down the ground. I just kept it simple but I’ve been working hard at my game and today it came off.  When I came off it I  didn’t feel I had done enough but I contributed to a match winning performance.”

Her 97 came from 64 balls and included two sixes and 14 fours.  The rain did come after the next ball and drove the players off but it didn’t last long.

Put into bat the  Northern Diamonds made a fantastic start blasting 57 in their powerplay and after 10 overs they had scored 90 without loss with captain Armitage reaching her fifty from 30 balls hitting 10 fours. She swept Amanda -JadeWellington over the square leg boundary for the first six of the match and she took a couple of paces down the pitch to Skelton and lofted her over the long-on boundary for another six.

On 91 she took a couple paces down the pitch to Sophia Smale but miscued her shot but luckily for her  the ball fell short off  Izzy Wong at long off and she got three.  

With opening partner Emma Marlow, she added 97 for the first wicket when Marlow had a big hoick at Smale and cue ended it up in the air and stumper Natasha Wraith ran underneath it to take the catch.

After  the departure of Armitage the boundaries dried up for the Northern Diamonds as they added only 22 from 25 balls. On three  Bess Heath reversed slog a sweep off Smale skied it but Wellington dropped the sitter at short third man. Sterre Kalis moved across her stumps to pull Wong but was bowled.

In their reply Western Storm  lost two wickets in their first  over without a run on the board. Danielle Gibson tried to the first ball from Rebecca Slater but top edged it to stumper Heath.  Slater finished the over as she started with a wicket. Wraith tried to clip her off her legs,missed the ball and lost her middle stump.

After losing those two early wickets  Emma Corney and Fran Wilson set about rebuilding the Western Storm chase but after adding 51 in seven  overs Corney couldn’t clear Armitage on the long-on boundary.

Wilson delicately chipped Emma Burns over mid-off to get a boundary which took her into the 40’s.  But she paid the price for not rotating the strike. Instead of nudging for singles she went for a big hit and found Marlow on the long on boundary.

Heath ended with three stumping victims, her first was Sophie Luff went down the pitch to Kate Levick and was easily stumped by Heath. Her  second stumping was Wong who  had a big swing at Levick and missed the ball. 

Armitage added: “We are very pleased that we got another win. I would have liked 165 but we bowled tight and we backed that up with early wickets.”

Western Storm’s Wilson said: “ The power play was the key today and the pitch was a bit slow and we lost wickets at bad times. I thought Armitage was outstanding and she can’t be far off from an England call up, she always scores runs against us.”

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