Surrey scrape through to T20 Cup final after unconvincing display against under-strength Bears

Surrey (135/7) beat the Bears (134/9) by three wickets

Photo Credit: Surrey CCC

Top order travails undid the Bears again as Surrey won the first semi-final of the Women’s County Cup at Taunton thanks to Kalea Moore’s 35 runs and Alexa Stonehouse’s 4/29. 

Put into bat on a blustery, cloudy morning at Taunton, The Bears brought with them the top order fragility that has haunted them throughout the Metrobank One Day Cup this season. The pace and variations of Ryana MacDonald-Gay and Alexa Stonehouse, plus the injudicious and reckless shot selections of the Bears’ top order meant that four of their top 5 batters were dismissed by the 4th over. 

After 24 balls of this match, it was always going to be a matter of repairing what had gone before for Bears, first of all by the expansive and positive hitting of Meg Austin, the promising youngster giving more glimpses of what she is capable of in an 18 ball cameo producing 25 runs and then, after the fall of the sixth wicket before the half way point, by the single pinching and quick running of Amu Surenkumar and Georgia Davis, who occupied the crease for eight overs, nudging the ball into the gaps and physically running 38 of the 50 runs they put on together.

When these two were dismissed in quick succession, it was left to Millie Taylor and Hannah Rainey to see out the 20 overs, eventually guiding the Bears to what appeared to be a respectable but under-par 133/9.

When Surrey came into bat, the enormity of the Bears’ task became clear. Unexpectedly without Issy Wong and Em Arlott due to England call-ups, they were also without Katie George today, meaning that Hannah Rainey, on loan from Lancashire, was leading their attack.

What unfolded for Surrey was, incredibly, a mirror image of the Bears’ innings. Batter after batter threw their wicket away with over-ambitious and badly-judged shots. Rainey, like Stonehouse before her, was getting the ball to swing, clipping the outside of Bryony Smith’s off stump. Spinners Hannah Baker, Charis Pavely were building pressure with their economy and Millie Taylor was extracting prodigious turn with her left arm leg spin.

Surrey were six wickets down after nine overs, in identical fashion to the Bears’ score and hour and a half earlier. It fell to Kalea Moore and Ryana MacDonald-Gay to rescue Surrey in the same way that Bears had been rescued by Davis and Surenkumar. Boundaries once again were a rarity as they preserved their wickets and accumulated a run a ball for nine overs, before Moore was dismissed by Davis in the 18th over.

Going into the penultimate over, with 14 runs needed, one sensed that Hannah Rainey needed to take a wicket and concede no more than six runs. Her 4th ball was edged just beyond the reach of keeper Nat Wraith, who could only deflect it for two runs, on such fine margins did this match hang. In the end, Rainey’s over went for nine runs and only five were required from the final over. Alexa Stonehouse sealed the win with a boundary with two balls to spare. Surrey were through to the final after a big scare at the hands of the Bears.