Diamonds shine as they beat Lightning in the final over

Yorkshire Diamonds pulled off a second consecutive home wins against teams that will be playing at finals day. Today it was the turn of Loughborough Lightning who lost by 3 runs. It was the Midlands side that needed the win to guarantee that they would go straight through to Finals day.

Beth Mooney showed her worth to Yorkshire Diamonds. She has shined through most of the tournament that hasn’t always gone the way of her side. At Headingley in their final game, they were not intimidated by the team that sat on the top of the table.

Mooney starred with a knock of 75 from 50 balls helped get her side rolling. With the early loss of Lauren Winfield for 8 in the third over. Trying to sweep Linsey Smith she lost her leg stump.

A second wicket partnership of 65 with Bess Heath helped to put Yorkshire Diamonds in total control. Heath was eventually caught by Amy Jones having mistimed a shot off the bowling of the ever-reliable Jenny Gunn.

It sparked off a flurry of wickets for Loughborough Lightning who felt they were back in the game. Thea Brookes lasted just two balls before being stumped off Kirstie Gordon’s bowling. It was one of two wickets for Gordon. The Scottish bowler removed Mooney to leave Yorkshire Diamonds 119 for 5. Gordon would finish with figures of 2 for 29. Only Smith would return better figures of 2 for 18.

Loughborough had chased more challenging totals than the 149 they would require to win. Without Katherine Brunt that task would have been well within their grasp.

Openers of Racheal Haynes and Sophie Devine strode out to the middle in fine form. That confidence was well placed. Devine had hit 3 sixes in an innings of 22. She was caught by Delissa Kimmince off the bowling of Thea Brookes a former Loughborough Lightning player.

Haynes again batted with authority and a flurry of fours in the middle over propelled her to 47 from 38 balls. It looked set for another fifty before Alice Davidson-Richards had her caught. Jones was starved of the strike at the other end and she was dismissed by Katie Thompson. Thompson was the amongst the pick of the Yorkshire bowlers as she took 2 for 18.

The boundaries started to dry up and Elyse Villani was stumped of Thompson only one more four would be scored as the run-rate steadily started to rise.

What the Loughborough Lightning players would have been unaware of the events at The Kia Oval where Surrey Stars were about to give them a big boost by beating Western Storm to secure the top spot for Loughborough Lightning.