Wong rolls over the Blaze with all-round performance

Bears women (163/8) beat The Blaze (143 all out) by 20 runs

On the way to The Oval this morning, the staff members at the small café at Warwick Parkway station proudly informed us that they had recently served Issy Wong a sausage roll when she was catching the train. We can only heartily recommend this café as obviously there is a secret ingredient imparting super-powers. This was a match in which the real Issy Wong stood up to be counted.

Entering the fray at the ninth ball of the game, she started with a beautiful straight drive for four. She was given out LBW next ball, but wisely referred the decision as DRS showed the ball was missing leg stump. For the next 11 overs, Wong displayed her full range of shots: from the orthodox to the outrageous and the powerful, she rattled six fours and two sixes around the Oval before being caught by Kathryn Bryce from the bowling of Sarah Glenn. By that time, Bears had set the platform for victory.

Wong had contributed 59 of their 100 runs and the rest of the team had eight overs to convert that start into a winning score. Sterre Kallis, fresh from her finals day in League Two yesterday for Yorkshire, combined with England’s Em Arlott to steer the team to a more than respectable 163/8 – enough to challenge The Blaze without completely putting the game beyond them.

If Blaze’s target was a bit challenging, it became much more so during Wong’s first over, as Solihull’s finest dismissed Tammy Beaumont and Kathryn Bryce in consecutive deliveries – the recent England captain and her Scottish counterpart blown away by the sheer self-belief of Wong when she’s blowing hot rather than cold. Charlotte Edwards will have sat up and taken note. 

It took the experience of Marie Kelly and Georgia Elwiss to rescue The Blaze from such a poor start. Taking occasional risks, they hit and nudged and tapped their way to within touching distance of the rate required, without ever really getting ahead of DLS. Once Kelly was out at the end of the powerplay, it was left to Elwiss to anchor the innings as a revolving door of players came and went as Millie Taylor and Hannah Baker successfully dried up the flow of runs in the middle overs. When Elwiss was finally dismissed at the end of the 18^th over, it confirmed what had been apparent for a while. The Blaze’s attempt to defend their T20 title was over, Bears would face Surrey in the final.

Player of the match, for 59 runs batting and bowling figures of 4/14 was Issy Wong. Just like the café owner at Warwick parkway, Charlotte Edwards will surely be finding a role for her in the England side as we approach the 2026 T20 World Cup.