A Smriti Mandhana century powers Storm to yet another victory

Western Storm reclaimed their spot at the top of the table by defeating Lancashire Thunder by 7 wickets as India T20I vice captain Smriti Mandhana scored her maiden T20 century.

Storm won the toss and sent in Thunder to bat first. Storm struck early, dismissing Nicole Bolton (13 off 11) and Evelyn Jones (4 off 14) within the powerplay so when it ended, Storm were on top, with Thunder at 31-2.

From there, Amy Satterthwaite led the rescue mission, playing an impressive knock of 85* off 57 balls. Her knock was the only one to pass 15 runs as wickets fell regularly. To make matters worse for Thunder, there were three run outs! Satterthwaite single-handedly guided her side to the respectable total of 153-7.

Anya Shrubsole took two wickets for the Storm with Freya Davies and Naomi Dattani taking a wicket each.

Thunder made an early breakthrough in the second innings, sending Rachel Priest back to the dugout for just five. However, when Smriti Mandhana is in the form she is at the moment, no total is too big. She played a blistering knock of 102 off a mere 60 balls to ensure her side chased down the total in the 19th over. Her century is the first of this years KSL. She fell agonisingly short of the finish line, Satterthwaite claiming the wicket. Stafanie Taylor (33 off 34) then struck the winning runs.

Kate Cross, Emma Lamb, and Satterthwaite took a wicket each but, all their efforts fell short, largely due to Mandhana's effort of scoring over a third of her teams runs.