Anxious Lancashire hold their nerve to seal place in T20 Cup Final

Lancashire (91/3) beat The Blaze by (86/8) by 7 wickets (DLS method)

Credit: Lancashire Cricket

Lancashire chased down 90 from 16 overs to beat The Blaze in a rain affected semi-final at Taunton thanks to a confident 34 not out from Ellie Threlkeld and an (at times) jittery 35 not out from Seren Smale.

Lancashire won the toss and invited The Blaze to bat. The Blaze started well thanks to Marie Kelly’s confident hitting in the power play, her five boundaries helping her team to 31/0 by the middle of the 4th over. Kelly’s dismissal, bowled by Sophie Morris, signalled a distinct change in tempo for the Nottinghamshire-based side. Over the next seven overs, they accumulated only 20 runs for the loss of three more wickets, Kathryn Bryce, Georgie Boyce and Georgia Elwiss departing, each having failed to get going and clearly feeling the need to hit out riskily in order to get the scoreboard moving.

After 13.2 overs, at 73/5, The Blaze needed a big finish to give themselves a chance. Unfortunately, what they got instead was a downpour. Over an hour later, the game reduced to 16 overs per side, The Blaze had 16 balls to try to get some sort of respectable and defendable total. However, it would be fair to say they finished with a whimper rather than a flourish, adding only 13 runs and losing 3 more wickets.

All this meant that Lancashire were set a DLS target of only 90 from their 16 overs. They had the worst possible start: a diamond duck when Tilly Kesteven was called through for a crazy single by Emma Lamb, who then followed her young opening partner back to the pavilion the following over for a more conventional, three ball duck.

Lancashire were by this time visibly anxious. Seren Smale repeated Lamb’s call for a run that wasn’t there and sent a visibly furious Fi Morris back to the pavilion. Lancashire were on the edge of disaster at 19/3, still needing 71 from 11 overs. What they needed was some calm reassurance and it came in the form of captain Threlkeld. She and Smale put together a partnership, slowly to begin with, but growing in confidence as the overs elapsed.

At the start of the 14th over, Threlkeld accelerated rapidly, taking 12 runs from Cassidy McCarthy, including back-to-back fours, meaning that only seven more runs were required from the final two overs, which Lancashire scored with six balls to spare.

For The Blaze, it was without doubt a disappointing day. True, the rain came at a very disadvantageous and disruptive time for them, but much damage had already been done and their stars such as the usually ultra-reliable Kathryn Bryce had failed to shine on this stage.

It was not a convincing win for Lancashire, but they did what was needed in circumstances which had worked in their favour. However, there are no awards for a convincing semi-final win, Lancashire did what was required and go to this evening’s final knowing that this is a really good opportunity for them to win their first trophy of the professional era.