By Bruce Talbot
MAIA Bouchier led the way with a career-best 93 as Southern Vipers warmed up for the defence of their title with a crushing 113 runs victory over South East Stars in the Charlotte Edwards Cup on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old opener needed just 55 balls to make the second-highest score in this season’s competition as Vipers posted 179-5 in a game between two sides who were already through to Finals Day in Derby on Saturday.
Stars finished second after suffering only their second defeat in the group stage but they will need to regroup having been bowled out for just 66, the second-lowest completed total in this season’s competition. Charlie Dean led the way with 3-5, Linsey Smith took 3-12 and Charli Knott 2-11 as nine of the wickets fell to spin.
A crowd of 3,000 including children from 70 local schools generated a lively atmosphere and Bouchier treated them to a special innings with shots all around the wicket.
A curious powerplay saw Vipers reach 50-1 with Bouchier hitting 32 off those runs from just seven balls. She hit the first five deliveries of the fourth over from Emily Jones to the boundary before twice lofting Tash Farrant over the ropes in the sixth.
In between there was a maiden from sixteen-year-old left-arm spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman, who again impressed with her control and picked up a deserve wicket when Knott was beaten in the flight.
Bouchier reached her fifty off 27 balls during a productive stand of 76 in nine overs with skipper Georgia Adams.
Adams made the most of being put down by Alexa Stonehouse on thirteen – a difficult chance as she ran in from deep backward square – to contribute 39 before an attempted ramp was held at backward point.
It gave Farrant a second wicket after she’d picked up Danni Wyatt in the second over with a slower ball that Wyatt chipped to mid-on.
Bouchier seemed to be making serene progress to a hundred, but in the sixteenth over she made her only mistake, missing a reverse sweep to give Stars’ skipper Bryony Smith a wicket with her second ball. Bouchier hit eleven fours and three sixes.
Freya Kemp swelled the total with 30 off fourteen balls at the end and Stars’ miserable chase never recovered after they lost three wickets in the powerplay.
Smith looked like she meant business, taking four boundaries off Freya Davies in the opening over of the reply. But after she was stumped for 22 trying to hit slow left-armer Linsey Smith over the top in the second over the innings nosedived. The next highest contribution was Stonehouse’s nine.
Paige Schofield missed a sweep, Smith picked up Tarrant and Kalea Moore in the final over of the powerplay before Dean added to Stars’ pain by bowling Alice Davidson-Richards and Jones with successive balls in the ninth over.
There was no way back for Stars from 44-6 and off-spinner Knott finished things off in the fourteenth over.
South East Stars coach Johann Myburgh said: “We want to play as well as we can but we didn’t quite execute as well as we can today. We could have executed our bowling plans against certain batters better and we dropped one or two catches which is unusual for us. Then we lost a little bit of intent with the bat.
“But we have played some really good cricket in this competition and we are full of confidence going into the weekend. Whoever we play will certainly know they are up against a good side. You can have some lopsided victories in T20 cricket and we’re not overly concerned about today. We will review it as a group and then prepare for the finals.”
Bouchier said: “I’m just very happy to get that score and for us to get that win. I have been working on my mental processes, to be a bit more positive in my outlook instead of going into my shell. Today I got away with a couple of edges and I told myself as long as I stayed in and I could catch up. I struggled a little bit at the start and then Emma Jones came on and I got those boundaries and it pushed on my innings. We batted so well throughout that middle period and kept rotating which is something we talked about. We’re super happy, it’s a great win for us and will give us some momentum for [Finals Day on] Saturday.”
