Nicola Carey was delighted to finish a “whirlwind” couple of weeks with a key role in Northern Superchargers’ maiden Hundred title after a seven-wicket victory over Southern Brave.
Former Australia international Carey only joined the squad on August 15 after Georgia Wareham was ruled out of the 100-ball tournament through injury.
A fortnight later Carey’s mixture of big hitting and calmness in a crucial unbeaten 35 helped Superchargers chase down Brave’s total of 115 for six to secure silverware at Lord’s.
“Yeah it’s pretty wild to be honest. A couple of weeks ago I was back home in Tasmania, doing a cold pre-season, so to get the call-up first of all was pretty surprising and to finish the couple of weeks with a win, it couldn’t have gone better,” Carey reflected.
“It’s honestly been a whirlwind. I haven’t had something like that where you get a message one night, the next day-and-a-half later you’re on a plane, then a day-and-a-half later you’re on the field. It was pretty crazy.
“Obviously pretty unfortunate and Wolfie (Wareham) is a huge part of this squad and has been for the last few years. It would have been really disappointing for her and the group.
“But I’m really grateful they chose me to come over. They must have had a list of one person on it and I was it, but I’m not complaining. I have thoroughly enjoyed this tournament and this group is incredible.”
Superchargers’ victory with 12 balls to spare at the home of cricket upset the odds after Brave had stormed through to the final with a perfect record of eight wins from eight in the group.
Put in to bat by Superchargers captain Hollie Armitage, Brave struggled from the off and two wickets in two balls for Kate Cross further checked their momentum before Annabel Sutherland accounted for dangerous duo Danni Wyatt-Hodge (25) and Freya Kemp (26).
New Zealand batter Sophie Devine was another unable to kick on after she made 23 and 116 never appeared enough to stop Superchargers, who blitzed 214 for five in Saturday’s Eliminator triumph over London Spirit.
Even with teenage sensational Davina Perrin out for 17, Phoebe Litchfield (26) scored the runs required to finish as leading scorer of the tournament before Sutherland hit 28 not out in an unbeaten 60-wicket stand with unlikely hero Carey.
Brave captain Georgia Adams acknowledged: “Gutting not to get over the line, but Superchargers were the better team and I thought they went about that chase brilliantly.
“We were definitely under par, it was tricky to get started on and had one or two of our batters who were in capitalised on that more, we probably could have got 10 to 15 more runs on the board and would have helped us to defend.
“We have still broken a record in terms of storming the group, which is a great thing to look back on, but it will take a couple days for the girls to get over the disappointment of this final, but that’s the nature of the beast.”
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