Gibson finds her form as Storm finish with a win

» DUMBLETON’S Dani Gibson led the way with a 40-ball 56 as Western Storm ended their season on a high with a narrow two-wicket victory over Thunder in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at Emirates Old Trafford.

An 81-run partnership between Gibson and Nat Wraith midway through the Storm innings looked to have proved decisive in chasing a DLS target of 239 in 48 overs after a half-century by Seren Smale and Libby Heap’s explosive 36 had helped the hosts reach 242-5 in 50.

But Thunder hit back with late wickets to produce a tense finish before Gloucestershire’s Chloe Skelton hit the winning run with 21 balls to spare.

The Storm’s third win means they finish fourth in the group on 15 points while Thunder end in seventh spot with six points.

Gibson said: “It was good to finish with a win.

“We performed really well with the ball but lost it a bit at the end of both innings.

“But because we had done so well at the start, we managed to make it a score we could chase down at the end.

“I kept looking at DLS and was a bit nervous about it. But that over (22 taken from Deandra Dottin) did help. That gave us the momentum to just keep going with it.

“We’ve got so much talent in our group. We’ve got a lot of youngsters.

“The average today was 20-years-old, so it shows that if we work hard in the winter, next year could possibly be a good year for us.

“It’s always good to get a score on the board and a win for Storm at the end.

“I feel like I played well - played the pitch well and had some good support with me to keep me going.”

That followed Gibson’s innings of 76 as Storm lost to Northern Diamonds by 104 runs, a loss which meant they were out of the competition.