After excellent half-centuries from Faye Tunnicliffe and Sune Luus which was key to the Duchesses’ innings, the Starlights lost by just 1 run despite a quick-fire 72 from Lizelle Lee at Six Gun Grill Newlands, writes Emily Norris.
The second-last game of the WSL 3.0 was played between the Starlights and the Duchesses at Six Gun Grill Newlands.
The Duchesses batted first, with Faye Tunnicliffe and Gandhi Jafta opening the batting. Jafta went early, bringing the Duchesses skipper to the crease.
Tunnicliffe and Luus put on a 103-run partnership, with Tunnicliffe scoring 69 runs off 60 balls and Luus playing a captain’s innings of 55 runs off 37 balls.
Tunnicliffe was dismissed on the first ball of the 20th over by Tatum le Roux, with an outstanding catch from Lara Goodall at long-on.
Luus then also went in the last over, trying to play a sweep shot and missing, resulting in her middle peg flying out of the ground. Sinalo Jafta flicked the last ball of the innings off her pads, to get the Duchesses to a very competitive score of 150 runs.
The Starlights then came in to bat, with Lizelle Lee needing runs. She came out guns-blazing, hitting to all parts of the ground, scoring 72 runs off 44 balls, the highest score of the tournament so far.
Lee and Steyn brought up their 50-run partnership in just 6 overs, getting their team off to an exhilarating start. The Starlights looked to be cruising to victory at 113-0, until Lee tried to hit one over the top, but didn’t get enough on it. Alyssa Erxleben took the vital wicket of Lee.
Andrie Steyn was then dismissed shortly after Lee, for 44 runs off 45 balls, off the bowling of Paulinah Mashishi. Mashishi also dismissed Lara Goodall, bringing the Duchesses back into the game. The brilliant bowling at the back end from the Duchesses saw them clinch victory by 1 run.
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