Southern Vipers extend dominance over Western Storm with 28-run victory

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Knott in the wickets after Adams top-scores with 48, to get back to winning ways

Georgia Adams top-scored with 48 off 34 balls  •  PA Photos/Getty Images

Southern Vipers 173 for 5 (Adams 48, Elwiss 45, Wellington 3-20) Western Storm 145 for 7 (Luff 34*, Knott 4-23) by 28 runs

Australian Charli Knott put Western Storm in a spin to get Southern Vipers back to winning ways in the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Off-spinner Knott tore through Storm with her best T20 figures of four for 23, with a helping hand from some electric wicket-keeping from Rhianna Southby.

Georgia Adams had struck 48 to lend herself as the backbone to Vipers’ 173 for five – the side’s second-highest score in the competition’s history – with Georgia Elwiss (45) and Freya Kemp (34) also contributing. Storm could only manage 145 in response to give the hosts a 28-run victory.

It meant Vipers – who have now won two from four this season – continued their 100 percent record over Storm in both competitions in the regional era, with their last defeat coming in the 2019 Kia Super League final.

Storm chose to field first which saw England quick Issy Wong finally get her first bowl since arriving on loan from Central Sparks – which began with two tidy overs.

Knott and Elwiss got motoring in the fourth over as the latter carved back-to-back boundaries off Ellie Anderson – with the pair adding 46, after stands of 47 and 73 in their previous two opening partnerships together.

Overseas Knott fell in the seventh over as she took on the ultra-long Utilita Bowl boundaries, the wind and fellow Aussie Amanda-Jade Wellington to offer long on a simple catch.

That just began another productive partnership as Adams joined her namesake to add another 40.

Elwiss fell five short of a second fifty of the competition when she was strangled on the sweep, but that only began an innings-defining alliance between Adams and Freya Kemp.

Kemp was scratchy for large periods but every so often found the middle of her bat to crunch four fours and the innings’ only six, but it was Adams who was the main attraction.

The 2023 MVP never looked in trouble as she found gaps and pushed extra runs to score 48, with 70 coming with Kemp.

Vipers’ middle-order had cost them two matches, but here they scrambled runs while losing wickets, as they reached 173 but lost Adams and Kemp to Wellington – who returned three for 20 – with Nancy Harman giving Sophia Smale a second wicket.

Storm’s reply always struggled to keep with the required rate, which started at just over eights and quickly ballooned over tens and higher.

After Nat Wraith had dragged to midwicket, Emma Corney was given a life on five, which she took with consecutive fours off Mary Taylor. But when she was given another on 24 this time she quickly perished due to the rapid hands of a stumping Rhianna Southby.

Sophie Luff and Niamh Holland stuck around without making a dent in the chase, their 24 together coming in 23 balls before Southby sensationally stumped Holland off Knott.

Knott got Wong out clubbing to cover next ball, and even though her hat-trick ball was a wide, she bounced back to toss one out wide to Alex Griffiths and notch hand Southby another stumping.

Wellington and Luff put on 46 but the run-rate had already far outgrown their capabilities as the latter was run out in the penultimate over.

Mollie Robbins holed out to the last delivery as Storm remain winless.