KSL 2017, Match 3 Review: Western Storm sneak past Loughborough Lightning in a close game

Western Storm returned strong after a huge loss in the opening game of the Kia Super League with a close win against the Loughborough Lightning in their season’s second game at the Taunton, which went down to the last over. The Western Storm elected to field first, restricted the Lightning to 108 runs and chased down the target after losing 5 wickets.

Amy Jones opened the innings with Ellyse Perry to hand a good start to Lightning as they raced to 30 in 4 overs. Jones struck 5 fours in her 21-run knock came off 13 balls. Perry on other hand made a slow start but struck a boundary and a six in her 28-ball stay in which she scored 25 runs before getting run out trying for a quick single. Things changed very quickly for the Loughborough Lightning after the run out as they lost three wickets in an over to Stafanie Taylor.

She trapped the Lightning’s captain George Elwiss for one run and sent back Sonia Odedra and Thea Brookers for ducks. The 10th over bowled by her read 1, W, 0, W, 0, W. The Windies’ skipper bagged 4 wickets in the game by getting better off Paige Scholfield, who was stumped. Taylor finished with figures of 4-1-5-4 as Lightning could only end up 108/9 in their 20 overs. Marie Kelly scored 18 off 30 balls to see her side playing full 20 overs.

The Loughborough Lightning didn’t let the Western Storm to an easy win on a good batting wicket. Kristen Beams cleaned up Racheal Priest for a duck in the very first over but Georgia Hennessey and Heather Knight built the chase at the required run-rate. Both the batters getting out in a quick span for 23 and 24 runs respectively and Fran Wilson following them by scoring just 4 runs spiced up the contest. But Stafanie Taylor did the job for her team with the bat by taking them towards the victory.

The equation came down to 24 needed from the last 3 overs where the Western Strom accumulated 14 runs in the 18th over bowled by Rebecca Grundy. Sophie Luff hit one boundary while Taylor hit two in that over. Luff hit one more boundary in the next over which saw the dismissal of Taylor. She fell after scoring 34 runs in 32 balls with 5 fours which didn’t affect the result as Storm finished off the chase in 19.1 overs.

Brief scores:

Western Storm – 108/9 (20); Ellyse Perry – 25 (28), Stafanie Taylor – 4/5 (4)

Loughborough Lightning – 109/5 (19.1); Stafanie Taylor – 34 (32), George Elwiss – 2/24 (4)

Western Storm won by 5 wickets