Result: Surrey 171-9 beat Lancashire 118 all out by 53 runs
By Jon Batham (ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay)
RYANA MacDonald-Gay and Phoebe Franklin shared seven wickets to spark a Lancashire collapse and lead Surrey to a 53-run victory at the Oval – their seventh win in eight Vitality games.
Franklin (3-19) and MacDonald-Gay (4-14) wrestled back control for the league leaders as the visitors crumbled from 102-3 to 118 all out chasing 172 for victory. Their heroics followed a 70-run stand between Emma Lamb, (64 from 46), and Ellie Threlkeld 32 which threatened to snatch an unlikely win for the Red Rose county.
All this drama came after Grace Harris (57 from 31) and Paige Schofield (37) shared a fifth-wicket stand of 69 to help the hosts recover from 17-3 to 171-9
For the second home game in a row, Surrey’s much-vaunted batting line-up was soon in trouble. Skipper Bryony Smith slapped the first ball for four, but was bowled by the second from Sophie Morris which skidded onto middle-stump. Sophia Dunkley inside-edged a full toss onto off-stump and confusion in running left Kira Chathli stranded.
Danni Wyatt-Hodge, involved in the mix-up, was starved of strike and became fretful before dancing down the pitch to Morris to be stumped by Threlkeld to leave Surrey 50-4.
Harris looked like she was batting on a different pitch, striking the ball powerfully down the ground before pulling a short one from Morris over deep-square for six as she marched to 50 in 28 balls.
Scholfield struggled initially and was dropped in the deep by Eve Jones on 11. The reprieve loosened her shoulders – a huge six over mid-wicket the pick of her shots in the stand of 69.
However, England stars Kate Cross and Lamb removed both batters in quick succession and thereafter only a few late blows from Tash Farrant carried the hosts to what looked an under-par 171.
An early missed stumping chance by Chathli off Tilly Corteen-Coleman which reprieved Lamb didn’t help the cause, but the unlucky bowler struck later in the same over trapping Eve Jones lbw.
The slow left-armer returned to castle Seren Smale and when MacDonald-Gay found the edge of Fi Morris’s bat, Lancashire were 32-3 at the end of the powerplay.
Lamb though, who also survived a close call for a run out, creamed one from Harris to the cover fence to signal she remained a threat, while Farrant just failed to hold onto a flashing drive from Threlkeld.
Lamb and Threlkeld hoisted Corteen-Coleman over the ropes at mid-wicket and mid-off respectively, the former moving to 50 from 36 balls, before four boundaries in the next over from Alice Davidson-Richards suggested a momentum shift.
Franklin though struck back to have Threlkeld stumped to end a stand of 70 in a brilliant over which conceded only 1 and brilliant fielding by Franklin and MacDonald-Gay in the next over saw the dangerous Ailsa Lister run out for nought.
Lamb was then bowled by Macdonald-Gay, who in company with Franklin routed the tail.
“I just wanted to keep mixing it up and not let the batters settle or attack me too much,’ Surrey all-rounder Franklin said.
“As seamers we always communicate about when slower balls are working and that was a pitch towards the end where cutters were gripping, so that made it a bit harder for the batters and forced them to take a chance somewhere else.
“We know the outfield is quick here, so I wanted to make sure it didn’t go over the rope. I was tumbling over the boundary when I heard everyone cheer, so Mac obviously cleaned up pretty well.
“We probably thought 171 was under par as 180-200 was the goal when I went in. We believed we could defend it.
“We really care for each other. Fielders are putting in the effort in the field to help the bowlers perform.
“We’ve been telling Ryana to back her strengths and keep it as simple as possible and getting that ball to nip back in.
Lancashire head coach Chris Read said: “From our point of all we weren’t at our best in the field where we missed a couple of chances which would have kept Surrey to considerably less than they ended up getting, though with short boundaries and a good wicket, we thought at halfway we were right in the game.
“Harris played beautifully but to get her and Scholfield out before they could really accelerate at the death was a positive for us and 172 represented a very chaseable target.
“But aside from the partnership between Emma (Lamb) and Ellie (Threlkeld) we didn’t really get going and once that got broken everything petered away at the end as the rate got a bit big.
“Surrey responded to the couple of big overs we had with a couple of tidy ones and then all of a sudden both the set batters are out and the rate was back up to 12 an over which was quite steep for the girls coming in.”
