Bethan Ellis shows Division One class in Division Two semi

Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-final

Glamorgan (209 all out) beat Northamptonshire (148 all out) by 61 runs

Glamorgan comfortably overcame Northamptonshire in the Women’s Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-final to set up a meeting with Middlesex or Yorkshire in next week’s final at New Road, Worcester. 

Abbie Freeborn, on loan from Warwickshire, and Glamorgan captain Lauren Parfitt, made the perfect start to the Glamorgan innings, after they had been invited to bat by Northamptonshire captain Anisha Patel, assuredly steering the Welsh county to 66/0 after 14 overs. 

By the half way point, with Glamorgan 109/2, a good platform had been established for a total potentially pushing 250. For Northamptonshire, it was Amelia Kemp and Lenny Sims, fresh from her World Cup qualifier exploits with Italy, who put the most pressure on the Welsh batters, and it was this pressure through the middle and later phases of the innings which gave Glamorgan the most problems, as the accumulation of dot balls and the lack of boundaries restricted the flow of runs on a green surface, which provided plenty of movement for quick bowlers like Kemp and plenty of turn for spinners like Sims.

The key contribution for Glamorgan came from Bethan Ellis, also on loan from Warwickshire, who grafted her way to 70 from 98 balls. She showed all the attributes of patience and good judgment which were needed to compile a successful innings on this surface, happy to knock singles and wait for the bad balls - six of which she sent to the boundary.

It was reminiscent of an innings she made for Central Sparks almost exactly a year ago, batting against Alexa Stonehouse and Tilly Corteen-Coleman, in which she helped the Sparks almost chase down a very big total by South East Stars in one of the final games of the regional era. Ellis, with family roots in Wales has become more of a fringe player for Warwickshire this season. It will be interesting to see if she is one of the players Glamorgan look to as they prepare for professionalism in 2027.

Glamorgan were finally dismissed for 209 in the 49th over. For Northants, the impressive Amelia Kemp went into that over with four wickets to her name, bowling at Glamorgan’s number 11, Katy Cobb. Kemp could not disguise her utter disappointment when Cobb managed to get herself run out going for an improbable second run, thus depriving Kemp the five-fer she deserved.

At the innings break, there was a distinct sense that Glamorgan had left the door open for Northants. A good start to their innings by the experienced Chloe Hill (on loan from Worcestershire) and with the exciting South African Michaela Kirk (on loan from The Blaze) coming in at number three, meant that there was a good chance of an upset if these key batters could put a substantial innings together.

Despite losing Kemp early on, Northants made a decent start to their reply, unhurried, Hill and Kirk played conservatively, preserving their wickets in order to create the platform they needed. It always appeared that this was the key partnership. In the 13th over, Glamorgan brought leg spinner Nicole Reid into the attack. She had Hill stumped with her second delivery, and over the next few overs showed herself to be at times unplayable, the spinning ball deviating sharply, causing the batters all sorts of problems.

Michaela Kirk attempted to loft her over extra cover in Reid’s third over and was easily caught by Beth Gammon. Reid had now bowled two wicket maidens and one sensed that the game had turned decisively in Glamorgan’s favour.

Northants were striking at a somewhat inadequate three runs per over and Glamorgan were beginning to take regular wickets. In the 19th over, Reid added Marriott and Sims to her list of victims in consecutive balls. Alicia Presland and Beth Ascott provided some resistance for Northants, but as the run rate required increased, so did the need to take more risks, and Presland was dismissed by the impressive Bethan Ellis, before Nicole Reid achieved her five-fer by dismissing her name-sake Mabel Reid. This capped a miserable day for Mabel Reid, who had a torrid time in the field, did not bowl, and batted at number 8 for her two-ball duck.

With Northants on 93/7, the end result was not in doubt. However, Ella Phillips and Anisha Patel were clearly not going to give up hope easily and hung around for almost an hour before Phillips and number 11 Bethan Robinson both fell to Gemma Porter in the 42nd over. 

Glamorgan’s 61 run winning margin was about right. They batted, bowled and fielded better than Northants and having experienced Division 1 players like Abbie Freeborn and Bethan Ellis as part of the team makes a huge difference and sets them above an inexperienced Northamptonshire team.

Glamorgan will be underdogs next Sunday in the final, but reaching this final and reaching the T20 Blast semi-final demonstrates that they are ready to be promoted in due course. For Northamptonshire, they know that they will never be a Division One professional team, but they also know that they can achieve a measure of success by developing their youngster like Lenny Sims and Amelia Kemp, both of whom showed much promise today.