Wellington puts boot in as Brave win again
Southern Brave Women limbered up for Saturday's Hundred final by beating second-placed Oval Invincibles by 31 runs at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl.
With the Invincibles already assured of a place in the eliminator at their home ground on Friday, both sides were playing for nothing more than pride in what could potentially be a dress rehearsal for the decider at Lord's, writes IAN MacCULLOUGH.
But it was the Brave who claimed the bragging rights with a resounding win, despite being restricted to what appeared to be an under-par 115-3.
Led by Amanda Jane Wellington, the home bowlers struck back as the visitors lost their last eight wickets for 21 runs to be dismissed for 85 with six balls to spare.
Australian leg-spinner Wellington took 4-12 and Lauren Bell 3-22 with only Invincibles skipper Dane van Niekerk and fellow South African Marizanne Kapp chalking up double figure scores.
Another excellent innings of 58 not out by England batter Sophia Dunkley helped the Brave to what appeared to be a modest score.
The Brave named Gaby Lewis at the top of the order after Smriti Mandhana returned home ahead of India's tour of Australia next month, but the Irish international fell to Tash Farren for just nine after Grace Gibbs took a smart catch above her head at mid-off.
Van Niekerk grabbed the crucial second wicket of in-form Danni Wyatt for 20, in what was a reward for some tight bowling.
Van Niekerk, Alice Capsley and
Kapp in particular bowled superbly to contain the hosts' powerful top order with only 39 runs scored from the first 50 balls.
But despite the bowlers playing their part they were not backed up in the field with Jo Gardner spilling two simple chances
Gardner first dropped by Dunkley for 30 and three balls later put down Stefanie Taylor for 11.
The pair eventually added 75 for the third wicket before the West Indies skipper was dismissed on the 98th ball by Farrant with Gardner finally holding on to a catch.
Wellington said: ‘I thought if we got to 110-115 it was defendable on a wicket
like that. It was really hard to start on but once (Sophia) Dunkley and a few of the girls got going on that pitch it actually looked like a really good pitch.
‘You can go into these games with a 50-50 mindset. Some people might think it is a dead rubber but we had to put on a display and put on a show for our crowd as well.
‘It was important as well to show we can beat that sort of team. We did a fantastic job.’
Invincibles’ Farrant added: ‘Obviously we would have liked to have chased that down, but we gave them 20 runs in the field and we pride ourselves on our fielding.’