Leicestershire Women Complete Comfortable Victory Over Northants In T20 Friendly

Ben Hazelden

Leicestershire Women completed a comprehensive six wicket victory over Northamptonshire Steelbacks in a friendly at Grace Road.

Sophie Lawrence dominated with the ball, completing figures of 15/2 off her three over spell before D’Nica Roff finished the innings with another three overs that only went for eight.

In reply Leicestershire once again flexed their muscles with a confident batting display that included a Rebecca Brooker 35 and a Lucy Weston 40 to chase down the total with 21 balls to spare.

Hannah Francis opened the bowling for the Foxes with a confident First over conceding one run then bowling Poppy Smart.

After losing an early wicket Amelia Kemp and Abigail Butcher played cautiously, only beginning to open up at the end of the powerplay, striking a combined six boundaries.

The Foxes had kept things tight but Both Butcher and Kemp remained and with the Steelbacks finding themselves with nine wickets in hand they began putting pressure on the bowlers, smashing boundaries to all parts of the ground.

Their partnership reached 64 before Asmi Shembekar found the crucial breakthrough when Butcher edged one to Sophie Bennett behind the stumps to leave Northants on 65/2 after ten overs.

Kemp didn’t falter though, continuing in the same vein, now joined by Hayley Brown at the crease.

However, she fell just before her 50 in a very similar fashion to Butcher, edging behind to Bennett, this time off the bowling of Sophie Lawrence.

Sophie Lawrence then claimed a second in the over as Patricia Hankins miss-timed a shot straight to mid-on, having to walk back to the pavilion for a duck

The Foxes found a strong finish as Rebecca Brooker ran out Bethan Solomon in the 18th over with a direct hit, followed two balls later by Emma Gibbs falling to the same fate, Lucy Weston running her out.

Northants posted 113 at the end of their 20 overs with Leicestershire requiring 114 to win.

They started in confident fashion, with the openers Rebecca Brooker and Sophie Bennett scoring 30 off the first four overs.

With all ten wickets still in the shed, Brooker and Bennett were able to take more risks scoring at a canter.

The 50 partnership came up in the eighth over shortly before Leicestershire lost their first wicket as Bennett hit Anje Lague to Hayley Brown who was poised at mid-wicket.

With one came two as Brooker fell an over later, caught behind off the bowling of Katie Fidler.

This didn’t seem to affect the home side though with Lucy Weston coming to the crease and stabilizing the run chase.

Weston and Beth Wright built another significant partnership of 30 with the latter contributing 25 of them.

Then came Some joy for the visitors with two in two balls, Katie Fidler claiming both.

First Beth Wright was sent back when she was caught by opener Poppy Smart followed quickly by Flora Davies when she was trapped lbw.

It mattered little though as Weston hit the winning runs with a four over mid-on to seal the victory with 21 balls to spare.