A clinical performance from Sunrisers Leeds helped them reach the Women’s Hundred final once again as they beat Southern Brave in the Eliminator. The defending champions secured the win through discipline on the field which saw them restrict the Brave to just 114/7 before overcoming a few nervous moments towards the end to seal the win.
The decision to bowl first was not necessarily justified early in the innings when Lizelle Lee went after the Sunrisers bowling attack to smash a six and four fours to give the Brave a bright start. Despite allowing Jess Jonassen to bowl five straight dot balls to her, Lee recovered to start the attack again adding three more boundaries before a top leg break from Hannah Baker removed her from the crease. Despite Lee’s efforts, the run rate was kept in check by Sunrisers given Maia Bouchier’s struggling start at the other end.
She then struck Kate Cross and Deepti Sharma respectively to remove Laura Wolfhardt and the struggling Bouchier to completely shift the momentum. Brave never recovered as they continued to lose regular wickets. Sophie Molineux and Charli Knott made contributions but the Sunrisers bowling attack allowed no one to explode at the back end of the innings as the Brave crawled to 114/7.
The Brave still made a meal of it despite Lauren Bell and Issy Wong removing openers to put Sunrisers under early pressure. Lauren Winfield-Hill and Annabelle Sutherland hit some timely boundaries and were able to get the chase back on track before Sarah Glynn sent the Australian packing at a critical juncture. Deepti then played a key role with the bat alongside Winfield-Hill as the duo put together a vital partnership that seemed to have put Sunrisers on track for victory.
However, in a late twist, with 20 needed from 24, Sunrisers lost two wickets in two balls causing some consternation in the camp. Issy Wong was able to break through the Winfield-Hill defense before trapping Danielle Gibson’s first ball lbw to give her side some hope. But that faded away very quickly as Deepti and Jonassen both hit two boundaries in the space of 10 balls to put the match over. The defending champion will now face Trent Rockets in the final on Sunday.
Summary scores: Valiant Southern Women 114/7 in 100 balls (Lizelle Lee 32; Hannah Baker 2-13) lost to Sunrisers Leeds 116/5 in 89 balls (Lauren Winfield-Hill 37, Deepti Sharma 28*; Essie Wong 3-21) by 5 wickets.
