The Blaze prove their worth once again with T20 County Cup win

The Blaze (92/3) beat Surrey (91/8) by 8 wickets with 6 balls to spare

• Final reduced to 13 overs per innings

• Kathryn Bryce takes 4/18 to restrict Surrey to 91/8

• The Blaze chase it down thanks to Emma Jones (22) and Kathryn Bryce (38)

• Joyful scenes as Kirstie Gordon lifts another trophy

The Blaze juggernaut rolls on.

T20 County Cup semi-final 1

The Blaze (46/1) beat Essex (44/3) by 9 wickets with 9 balls remaining. (Game reduced to 5 overs per side)

Having waited almost six hours since the scheduled start, and having avoided the dreaded indoor nets bowl-off, The Blaze showed that they are just as good at the 30 ball match as they are at the 120 and 300 ball match in the first semi-final of the T20 County Cup.

Inviting Essex to bat, the team from the Thames estuary compiled 44 runs from their five overs, with Kirstie Gordon, Charley Phillips and Grace Ballinger proving difficult for the Essex batters to get away, as they conceded only 5 boundaries across the five overs. Openers Grace Scrivens and Lissy Macleod contributed most of the Essex runs, but one was left with the feeling that 44 was not going to be enough against a Blaze side who have dominated all formats this year.

And so it proved, with Emma Jones reverse hitting three consecutive fours in the penultimate over of the Blaze reply to confirm a convincing victory with a (proportionately) massive nine balls to spare. 

The game truly got away from Essex in the second over, when two set of four byes contributed to an 18 run over from Kate Coppack, which reduced the required rate to a run per ball. Mollie Adams, on loan from Hampshire, was the unfortunate wicketkeeper against whom the byes will count, but in reality, standing up to the stumps to a fast bowler with the ball skidding through in these damp conditions was a very tough ask for the youngster, and a gamble by Essex which didn’t pay off.

Essex can begin the long journey home feeling disappointed at their performance, but glad that at least they got a chance to decide the game in a 30 ball match rather than by the lottery of a bowl-off.

Smith’s explosive cameo sees Surrey reach the final

T20 County Cup semi-final 2

Surrey (62/2) beat Somerset (60/6) by 2 runs

Bryony Smith’s turbo-charged 25 from just 7 balls was enough to launch Surrey into the T20 County Cup Final, as this second semi-final was played as a five over per side game after a day of rain in Manchester.

Somerset won the toss and invited Surrey to bat. The pugnacious Smith, captain of Surrey, responded by hitting the first ball for 6. She contributed another 6 and a 4 in the first over alone, to help Surrey to 22/0 at the end of the first over. Smith, moving smartly across her crease, hit two more boundaries in the second over before being run out, but the damage was already done, particularly as Smith was dropped by Niamh Holland from her third ball.

Liv Barnes and Lola Harris restored a little more control to the bowling in the third and fourth overs, but further drops and mis-fields, including Chloe Skelton rushing from the boundary to try to catch a ball which would have fallen straight into her hands had she stayed where she was. Niamh Holland took a magnificent catch to remove Jemimah Spence, but then put down another simple catch in the fourth over, reprieving Alice Monaghan. All these errors would come back to haunt the team from the West Country.

When Somerset batted, both boundaries and wickets flowed as they chased an improbable 63 to reach the final. Luff, Knight and Holland were quickly dismissed, but Bex Odgers stuck around, striking 29 form 12 balls.

When she was dismissed at the end of the 3^rd over, 30 runs were still required, but boundaries from Emma Corney and Alex Griffiths helped Somerset to take the game deeper and deeper. When Jess Hazell came in to face the final two balls, eight runs were needed to tie. She hit the first ball for four, but could only manage two from the final ball. Surrey had got to the final, thanks to Bryony Smith’s hitting and Somerset’s wayward fielding.

The Blaze are Champions

T20 County Cup Final

The Blaze (92/3) beat Surrey (91/8) by 8 wickets with 6 balls to spare

On a classic Manchester day, dominated by steely grey skies and persistent precipitation, it was the Blaze who proved themselves to be the team of the season, even on days when the weather is unseasonably dark and dreary. This team, who have no obvious superstars (apart from the one who never plays for them…), have once again proved themselves to be much greater than the sum of their parts, with one unheralded player after another ready and willing to step up and put in a match-winning performance when it is needed.

Throughout the season this has proved to be the case. Sometimes it is Georgia Elwiss, sometimes Lucy Higham, sometimes Kirstie Gordon, sometimes Charley Phillips, sometimes Sarah Bryce, sometimes Grace Ballinger, sometimes Emma Jones, sometimes Tammy Beaumont, sometimes Marie Kelly – all have made telling contributions when needed.

Today, it was Kathryn Bryce who stood up and put in a huge all-round match winning performance in the T20 County Cup final. It is difficult to think of another player in English county cricket who is the full package like Kathryn Bryce: batting, bowling, fielding, leadership, character. She is the ultimate team player.

It was not spectacular. The Blaze tend not to do “spectacular”. They achieve success through efficiency and a fair distribution of workload. If that sounds like a criticism, it is not. And this final epitomised that approach. No nerves, no thrashing around trying to chase down a score too quickly, just breaking down a task into digestible chunks and then getting on with it.

Surrey batted first in a game reduced to 13 overs per side. Although having just played 5 overs per side semi-finals, 13 overs seemed like a decadent, elongated luxury.

Immediately, the Blaze tormented Surrey with the fast, swinging bowling of their dangerous opening bowlers, Ballinger and Phillips. Aylish Cranstone, who did not get to bat in the semi final having been demoted down the order, finally got her chance and was dismissed first ball, her off stump knocked back by a beautiful outswinger from Ballinger. Bryony Smith soon followed, top-edging a pull shot high into the night sky and into the hands of Emma Jones to give Phillips her first wicket.

It was Kira Chathli and Alice Monaghan who provided some resistance, but as the attack changed and pace was taken off the ball with the arrival of Kirstie Gordon and Josie Groves into the bowling attack, they could only strike at about a run a ball, which was never going to be enough to set an adequate total.

The frustration of this caused Chathli and Monaghan to try to run a single that was never there against the accurate bowling of Kathryn Bryce, who smartly removed the bails at the non-striker’s end with Chathli well short of her ground. Bryce returned in the 10^th and 13^th overs, taking two wickets in each, leaving Surrey hopelessly short of the challenging total they needed to post. Only Alice Davidson-Richards provided any sort of example of how to play in these circumstances and conditions, her late striking helping Surrey to a total of 92/3 from their 13 overs.

So, The Blaze required seven runs per over to win. Beaumont and Jones opened and struck at just over seven per over, taking few risks and steering Blaze towards a likely victory. Beaumont was very much the junior partner, chewing up 15 balls to score eight runs before being out in the seventh over. But Emma Jones more than made up for her partner’s slow rate by whacking a boundary pretty much every over.

Emma Jones’ reverse hitting is possibly one of the strangest sights in cricket. There is nothing fluid or sophisticated about it. It is not easy on the eye like the reverses of Phoebe Litchfield. It doesn’t feel well controlled. But it is effective. It is the personification of the Blaze approach – do what you need to do to score runs and take wickets as effectively as possible.

When Jones was out, caught by Chathli on the deep point boundary, Kathryn Bryce arrived at the crease. When Beaumont was out, the score was 49/2 after seven overs. The Blaze were up with the rate. And when Georgia Elwiss sent a ball for Dani Gregory sailing over deep mid-wicket for six, the rate dropped to a run a ball.

With five runs needed to win from 13 balls, Elwiss was out, edging a ball from Dani Gregory into the gloves of Jemima Spence, at which point Sarah Bryce joined her sister in the middle to complete the chase together. These two, who batted The Blaze to victory in the Charlotte Edwards Cup final against South East Stars two years ago, embraced after scampering through for a single to seal a comprehensive victory. 

Kathryn Bryce was unbeaten on 38 from 30 balls, which alongside her bowling figures of 4/18 made her the player of the match.

For Surrey, without McDonald-Gay, Corteen-Coleman, Dunkley, Capsey and Wyatt-Hodge, it was a disappointing defeat, but one about which they can have no complaints. The Blaze proved their superiority in this match, as they have been doing all season. And with the One Day Cup still to come, a domestic treble must be very much on their minds.