Haynes-Devine puts things right for Lightning

It would have been easy for Loughborough Lightning letting their loss to Western Storm derail their campaign. Today, however, they put that behind them as they again produced a performance where most of the players contributed. They beat Yorkshire Diamonds by 42 runs in reasonable comfort.

Rachael Haynes had come in for some criticism Sunday for the way she batted in the game at Taunton.  Today she put things right as she top-scored for Loughborough Lightning with 50 from as many balls before she was caught by a fantastic catch from Chamari Atapattu on the boundary who ran at least ten yards before taking a low catch off the bowling of Katie Levick.

At the time Loughborough wherein total control as Haynes and her opening partner Sophie Devine added 80 for the first wicket from the first 9.5 overs. Devine was then caught behind by Beth Mooney to give Levick the first of her wickets.

While the innings faulted a little from that point as Loughborough Lightning with wickets in hand went at the Yorkshire Diamonds bowlers. Elyse Villani threated to open up with a brief 14 from 7 balls but was run out coming back for a second run.

Loughborough eventually ending up with 143 for 5. While they had enough runs to defend they will feel disappointed that they didn’t score nearer 160.

The ground had received plenty of rain over the previous few days and it was most evident as both sides opened up with seam bowlers. It was Loughborough Lightning who made the most of it. Having got Lauren Winfield in the second over to Sophie Devine they never took the pressure off the Yorkshire Diamonds. Atapattu got a ball that rose off a length first ball and it never relented from there.

It was again the spin of Linsey Smith, Lucy Higham and Kirstie Gordon that set the standard for Loughborough Lightning. Higham took the wicket of Atapattu with her first ball of the game.

The run rate was going up all the time as Yorkshire Diamonds failed to find the boundary. When Glenn dismissed Katharine Brunt for 12 it looked a very tall task for Yorkshire Diamonds and so it proved.

Yorkshire Diamonds are a couple of batters short of being competitive. They slumped to 102 for 9 from their 20 overs. There is still a lot of cricket left in this tournament it will take something remarkable to turns things around now.