Lancashire Thunder v Warwickshire Bears Women, Vitality Blast

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Nat Wraith’s brilliant 83 helped Warwickshire Bears Women win a final ball thriller against fellow strugglers Lancashire Thunder in a dramatic match at Blackpool.

Tilly Kesteven’s 73 looked to have put Thunder well in control after some fine spin bowling from Sophie Morris and Vinali Weerappuli, who took three wickets each, had restricted the Bears, to 160-9.

But a late collapse from the hosts saw them lose two wickets in the final over to lose by just one run.

The Bears’ innings was dominated by Wraith who came to the crease in the third over after Abigail Freeborn had cut Morris straight to point for eight.

Kesteven was taking charge and reached her half-century off 38 balls and together with Seren Smale the fifth wicket partnership began steering the hosts to an apparent victory.

By the time Smale was bowled by Hannah Baker for 23, Thunder were just 13 runs away from the target but the dismissal of Carter for 0 bowled by Surenkumar brought some late drama.

Kesteven and Cross both lost their wickets in the last over meaning three runs were needed for victory off the last ball with Mary Taylor holding her nerve and sparking the celebrations.

Chris Read, Lancashire Thunder Head Coach said:

"We've got ourselves into a winning position and couldn't get over the line.

"We're gutted because I think in this competition it's important that we get going to give ourselves an opportunity to get up the table.

"Tilly did exceptionally well. It's great to have her in the team and scoring runs and making contributions like she has done today. Six inches higher on that one she got caught off, and that's the game (won).

"We have been 'in' all the games we've played and competitive and obviously today we were up in the game for large parts of it. We're just not finding enough matchwinners to get us over the line in key moments.

"In terms of how we're trying to play our cricket we're making strides, scoring at a fast rate, putting more runs and the board and the bowling group is consistent but it's about winning those crucial moments and taking chances when they come along."