Western Storm have won the second edition of the Kia Super League, beating the defending champions Southern Vipers by seven wickets – and at the game’s conclusion, the defeated captain, Charlotte Edwards, confirmed her retirement from professional cricket.
Edwards is England’s most capped player, playing 23 Tests, 191 one-day internationals and 95 T20s across 20 years, the last 10 of which as captain. In the final, her 20 off eight balls helped the Vipers to a score of 145 for five.
“I don’t want to walk away from the game altogether,” Edwards said. “From this format, my time is done. I want to pursue other things: coaching, media work and it just felt right this season. I kind of knew at the start. It was made certain in the middle. My body has given up on me now.”
Coaching is next on the horizon: “I’ve spoken to the ECB about doing some work there. I’ve spoken to Mark Robinson and I’d like to get involved with the junior age groups and helping a lot of this good talent we have in England at the moment.”
She leaves a game she has driven for more than 20 years in a much better place, as evidenced by the 3,413 crowd – a KSL record – that attended 2017’s Finals Day.
“To be perfectly honest, year on year it surprises me. To be at Lord’s this summer [for the Women’s World Cup Final] in front of 26,000 people, I never believed in my lifetime that I’d see that. I’m hoping the youngsters grab hold of all the opportunities they have because it’s just wonderful.. I can sit back and watch them and hopefully help them along the way. I’ve got memories that will serve me a lifetime and I feel incredibly lucky to have played in the era that I played.”A target of 146 looked tricky but the Storm’s record of winning every time they have batted second this competition held them in good stead, getting over the line with 12 balls to spare, thanks to a huge six from West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor over long on.
Taylor’s 30 not out might have finished the job that her figures of three for 28 started in the Vipers’ innings, but it was New Zealand’s Rachel Priest who broke the back of the chase with 72 from 41 balls at the top of the order. Priest’s innings, containing 10 fours and three sixes, made her the competition’s leading run-scorer, just one ahead of Vipers’ own Kiwi, Suzie Bates. Priest’s fifty came off 26 balls, the second-fastest in the two years of the KSL, with 25 from the final over of the power play, bowled by the left-arm spinner Bryony Smith. It was a heavy fall from Smith, who had bowled the England captain, Heather Knight, the over before.
Earlier, the Storm beat Surrey Stars by three wickets in the sole semi-final. The Vipers, winners of the group stage, had a bye to the final.
The match was a repeat of 2016’s showpiece, which the Southern Vipers won by seven wickets. These two also opened this season’s edition at the Ageas Bowl: the Vipers dishing out a lesson then, too, skittling out the Storm for 70 and knocking it off with nine wickets to spare.
The defending champions got off to a useful start, as their international stars Hayley Matthews (West Indies) and Bates put on an opening stand of 47. Matthews was the aggressor, hitting six fours in her 31 that should have come to an end a ball before it did. The Storm wicketkeeper, Priest, missed a simple stumping off Taylor, only for Matthews to then knock a return catch to the bowler.
Bates continued, striking the first six of the match down the ground in the ninth over. However, she only made it to 21, before Taylor trapped her in front.
Danni Wyatt (21) and South African Mignon du Preez (31) took the score to 100 with a partnership of 37 for the fourth wicket. But then Wyatt was caught by Georgia Hennessy, diving forward at long on, off the bowling of Knight (Wyatt was also dropped over the boundary at midwicket by Sophie Luff when she had just six) and Du Preez was held by Jodie Dibble at mid-off from Claire Nicholas’ off-spin. The wicket of Du Preez brought Edwards to the crease. In five previous matches this tournament, she had batted only once, finishing nought not out. Coming into the final, she did not have an average. When she ran off at the end of the Vipers’ innings, she still didn’t.
With 15 balls left and just 117 on the board, Edwards struck four boundaries in an eight-ball 20, which included finishing the innings with three consecutive fours off England’s World Cup hero Anya Shrusbole.
A score of 145 for five, on a slowish pitch, would take some beating. Priest decided she would be the woman to do it. When the opener was dismissed, caught at deep midwicket by Wyatt off the bowling of Katie George, the Storm required 51 from 61. With Taylor, player of the match in the semi-final with a match winning 37 not out, struggling with a hamstring injury, it was no certain task. While she swung from the hip, Luff (30 not out) kept things ticking over with Taylor’s runner, Fran Wilson, while also using her feet to effectively clear the infield.
In a competition ultimately designed to raise the standard of domestic cricket, it was fitting that Luff, a Taunton local who learned her trade within Somerset, delivered in such a high-pressure situation.
