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Worcestershire recover from 68 for 5 through middle-order partnership

Paul Edwards22-Jul-2019
Every moment one spends at Cheltenham is precious but no festival in recent years has been as rich in promise as that which currently garlands the College Ground. The six struck over point by Gareth Roderick to secure last week’s victory over Leicestershire already has legendary status in Charlton Kings and by mid-afternoon on this second day the prospect of a second, rather more comfortable win for Gloucestershire beguiled both the serious drinkers in the Old Patesians marquee and the county chief executives enjoying their reunion at the College Lawn End.Replying to the home side’s 354, Worcestershire were 68 for 5 when Brett D’Oliveira joined Ross Whiteley. Most people agreed Chris Dent would enforce the follow-on; few considered the possibility he might not have the chance to do so. Yet Whiteley had already begun to bat against most of the memories his muscles and temperament had acquired over seasons of short-form cricket. He waited until his 43rd ball before hitting his first four and his six over midwicket off Ethan Bamber seemed an eccentric highlight from a different match.D’Oliveira, dropped by Miles Hammond at second slip off Ryan Higgins when only 3, joined him in a sixth-wicket partnership of 146 characterised by rigorous self-discipline. Whiteley hit three sixes but had earned the right to do so rather than brusquely asserting it in a manner likely to get him into trouble. Four years to the day since he made his last century, against Yorkshire at Scarborough, he was only 12 runs short of three figures when Matt Taylor got a ball that was 75 overs old to fly from just short of a length, take the edge of the bat and fly via James Bracey’s gloves to Benny Howell at slip.But our day ended with D’Oliveira unbeaten on 66 albeit Gloucestershire’s bowlers will be encouraged by the prospect of using a nearly new ball in the morning. A game which both sides need to win is far better balanced than appeared likely in mid-afternoon and we have two fine days ahead of us. “There are great spiritual advantages to be had in that town,” Nicholas Bulstrode informs his wife when describing Cheltenham in .Yet advantages of any sort were the home side’s monopoly earlier in a day when Worcestershire’s top-order batsmen seemed as ripe for the picking as pears in late September. When their first dig dwindled from 24 without loss to 68 for 5 the statisticians pointed out it was the fifth successive innings in which they had lost those wickets for less than 85 runs and the sixth time in seven matches when Worcestershire’s top five first-innings wickets had fallen for less than a hundred.Gloucestershire’s bowlers fed on such insecurity and their own Puritan disciplines offered Joe Leach’s batsmen no repose. A hesitant Riki Wessels edged Bamber to Benny Howell in his side’s sixth over; Callum Ferguson was pinioned in his crease by David Payne and nicked a catch to Hammond. After lunch Gloucestershire’s can-do approach was epitomised by Bracey who took an outstanding leg-side catch off Ryan Higgins to remove Ed Barnard and then took an even better one standing up to dismiss Daryl Mitchell off the same bowler.For all that he is having a poor season Mitchell remains the batsman Worcestershire’s opponents would most like to remove but Bracey’s positioning was a shrewd attempt to counteract his tendency to come down the wicket. That, though, was almost the end of Gloucestershire’s absolute dominance. The rest of the day saw Whiteley and D’Oliveira give their team some hope they might yet achieve a victory they sorely need. And their resistance recalled a first session in which one of Worcestershire’s most loyal servants had achieved a fine career landmark.Indeed the morning has begun in an atmosphere of multi-faceted incipience and general enticement. Cleeve Hill was dark green beneath benevolent cloud and the old paths towards Winchcombe were beguiling in the gentlest haze. Tom Smith was on 79, five runs short of his career-best score, Gloucestershire were 11 runs shy of a fourth batting bonus point and Leach needed two wickets to reach 300 in first-class cricket for Worcestershire. The third of these landmarks was the first to be reached when Leach, bowling as tightly as ever, knocked back Payne’s off stump in the sixth over of the day and had Bamber caught by a diving Ben Cox in the tenth. The bowler greeted this wicket with a guttural roar of triumph. Smith was last man out on 83 but he will not give a monkey’s if his side have 23 points in the bag on Wednesday evening.Neither will any other home supporters. There must, one imagines, be better things in life than watching cricket at Cheltenham. Yet on a warm, dream-laden evening at the College Ground, with the Glorious Glosters slightly in the ascendant, and the air scented with possibility it was awfully difficult to think what those things might be. So we ate oranges on the pavilion balcony and watched the evening light on distant, tree-ringed fields.

The games will be played in Dehradun, a north Indian city that has not hosted international cricket before

ESPNcricinfo staff09-May-2018Ahead of their highly anticipated Test debut against India next month, Afghanistan will also host Bangladesh for three T20 internationals in Dehradun, the capital of the state of Uttarakhand in north India.The matches are all day-night fixtures beginning at 8pm IST and will be played on June 3, 5 and 7. They will be the first significant fixtures held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun.”From the report I got, the ground looks fine and there are enough facilities. The hotels are also quite good,” Akram Khan, BCB’s cricket operations chairman, said. The only slight problem being the hotel is about 45 minutes from the ground. Otherwise everything seems fine. I think we will also be playing a practice match ahead of the three-match series.”The two countries have played each other only once previously – at the 2014 World Twenty20 in Dhaka – where hosts Bangladesh routed Afghanistan by nine wickets. Afghanistan are currently ranked eighth on the ICC T20I team rankings, and Bangladesh are tenth.The Afghanistan Cricket Board CEO Shafiq Stanikzai said: “The ongoing training camp in India in which players from the national and U-19 teams as well as top performers from domestic cricket will help the selection committee to select a strong side for the T20I series against Bangladesh. These matches will be important for both sides to gain valuable points in the ICC rankings and the lead up to the 2020 ICC World Twenty20″.”This promises to be a very competitive series,” BCB chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury said. “Afghanistan have some fine players for this format and they will have the advantage of familiarity with the conditions in Dehradun. However, the Bangladesh team is a confident and experienced unit and we are really looking forward to the matches.”Afghanistan’s one-off Test against India begins in Bengaluru on June 14.

There were wide eyes and a wide smile from Andile Phehlukwayo as he reflected on his second match-winning hand with the bat in a brief international career

Andrew McGlashan20-Feb-2017There were wide eyes and a wide smile from Andile Phehlukwayo as he reflected on his second match-winning hand with the bat in a brief international career.With AB de Villiers, one of the game’s great batsmen at the other end, it was Phehlukwayo who hit the crucial boundaries late in the Hamilton chase. South Africa needed 22 off 12 balls, which became 21 off 10 at which point Phehlukwayo lofted Trent Boult over long-off. Then came an even sweeter blow in the final over as he drilled Tim Southee back over his head to virtually kill the game.”I just tried to watch the ball, swing really hard and hit straight,” he said. “The first one, I was just trying to play straight but the second one I definitely knew when it came off the bat that it was going for six.”New Zealand were marginal favourites when he arrived with 52 needed off 44 balls, on a tricky pitch and three frontline bowlers remaining in South Africa’s tail, but in Phehlukwayo they had someone who had already shown a calmness under pressure early in his South Africa career.Against Australia in Durban he partnered David Miller in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 107 as they hunted down 372. Miller took the headlines, but Phehlukwayo was anything but a silent partner as he hit 42 off 39 deliveries.This time he had de Villiers around, who was concentrating on rotating the strike because he was finding boundaries difficult to come by. “He was one of the very few guys tonight who could pick up the pace of the wicket,” de Villiers said of his junior partner.”From the side it looked like that, but I was just trying to watch the ball and pick what they were trying to do,” Phehlukwayo said. “A lot of information was given to me from AB, what the bowler was thinking and what he was trying to bowl so that helped a lot. It was really exciting, I’ve never batted with him before. Everyone knows his abilities but I’ve learnt a lot from him in terms of game plans and how I need to train.”He has also had his moments with the ball in his first 11 ODIs, including 4 for 44 in his second ODI against Australia, and on the domestic scene has a reputation for proficiency in the death overs. “On the bowling end I probably need to get my pace up and get more consistent with line and length,” he said. “On the batting side I enjoy pressure situations.”South Africa may yet consider the experience of Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander for the Champions Trophy, but Phehlukwayo’s finishing skills with the bat add to his value considerably when decisions have to be made over the final squad. Currently he is one of four pace-bowling allrounders in New Zealand – alongside Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell and Dwaine Pretorius – and there may not be room for all in the final 15.His performances could also help with CSA’s transformation targets because he would be a second black player in the squad – South Africa need to average two per XI throughout a season – with few arguments that he was not worth his place on cricket merit alone.

Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill combined in a clinical display of poise and timing, to gun down Pakistan’s 168 for 7 inside eighteen overs in Hamilton

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jan-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMartin Guptill and Kane Williamson recovered splendidly from their run out in Auckland•Getty Images

Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill – New Zealand’s two form batsmen – combined in a clinical display of poise and timing, to gun down Pakistan’s 168 for 7 inside eighteen overs in Hamilton. Their 171-run stand was the highest ever for T20Is, let alone for opening pairs. The ten-wicket victory evened the series in emphatic fashion. Guptill left the field with 87 to his name, and Williamson with a personal best of 72 – both striking at 150.Williamson had been the early aggressor, flitting about his crease to make use of errant lines from the Pakistan bowlers. He slapped Mohammad Amir through the leg side for four in the second over, then cracked three fours through point off Imad Wasim soon after. With the positioning of the pitch making the eastern square boundary only 52 metres, Williamson continued to move around his crease to target that – most memorably lap-scooping Amir to the fine-leg fence in the fifth over. Williamson had New Zealand’s run rate hurtling at 10 an over inside the Powerplay, and it did not dip too far below that thereafter.Guptill was more still at the crease, hitting a flat six off Umar Gul in the first over of the chase, but largely batting in Williamson’s slipstream before taking flight through the middle overs. He struck consecutive fours, either side of the wicket, off Amir in the 13th over, and successive sixes off Shahid Afridi in the 15th. He struck four sixes and nine fours in his 58-ball innings. Williamson didn’t clear the rope, but hit 11 fours.Pakistan had lost early wickets and made a stalling start before Shoaib Malik’s measured 39 and Umar Akmal’s violent 56 not out from 27 balls seemed to have revived their chances in the match. New Zealand’s batting was excellent, but Pakistan’s bowlers perhaps had their thoughts scrambled by the asymmetrical dimensions of the field – one square boundary more than 20 metres shorter than the other.Amir had a particularly poor outing, leaking 34 from his 3 overs, but no one in the Pakistan attack fared well. Wahab Riaz went at 10 an over, and the usually-miserly Imad Wasim at 8. Such was the adaptability of New Zealand’s batting, that they were not slowed by Shahid Afridi’s rifling through the attack, nor the several different fields he employed through the innings.Mitchell McClenaghan was the best of New Zealand’s bowlers, delivering a tight line, largely on off stump, and mixing up his pace and lengths intelligently. He had conceded only eight runs from his first three overs, but those figures were soured somewhat by Akmal’s late charge, during which the batsman struck two fours and a six in three balls. McClenaghan did take valuable wickets however, having bowled Malik with a yorker in his third over, then having Wasim top-edging a bouncer to fine leg in the penultimate over of the innings.Earlier, Pakistan had been 34 for 2 after 6.1 overs before Malik arrived to ease the innings into motion, beginning with singles to third man, then a spate of fours to that short boundary. His 63-run fourth-wicket stand with Umar Akmal was the most substantial of the innings.Akmal blasted consecutive sixes off Mitchell Santner to the short leg-side boundary early in his innings, but he wasn’t shy of taking on the longer boundary either. He batted busily through the middle overs, and memorably launched Grant Elliott into the adjacent road in the 16th over, with a 103-metre hit over cow corner. Clean striking in McClenaghan’s final over moved him to 50 off 22 balls – the second fastest T20 half-century for Pakistan just one ball behind his own record. He lost partners in quick succession through those late overs, but appeared to have seen Pakistan through to a good score, given their successful defence of 171 two evenings prior.

Jon Culley at Edgbaston15-Jul-2013
ScorecardLaurie Evans held Warwickshire’s middle order together•PA Photos

A first Championship win since April and a couple of Friends Life t20 successes and Warwickshire’s dismal season suddenly appeared to be looking up. Then came another in a succession of injuries that have blighted their defence of the title they claimed so emphatically in 2012. Chris Wright is the latest victim in this run of poor luck after a scan revealed that a stress fracture lay behind the back troubled that flared up at Uxbridge last week.Conditioned in the modern way to accentuate the positives, Warwickshire are not inclined to make injuries an excuse. It was the Ashley Giles way and his successor, Dougie Brown, is of a similar mind. Yet there has not been a match, it seems, without two or three of last year’s side missing, sometimes more. Inevitably, there are consequences in faltering form.Only two of the team selected for this match have played in every Championship round; some, such as Keith Barker and Ian Westwood, have missed half or near enough. In addition to Wright, captain Jim Troughton is also absent with back trouble. Oliver Hannon-Dalby, signed in part as cover for injuries, is himself sidelined, also with a stress fracture. At least Laurie Evans has recovered from the broken hand inflicted by a ball from England’s Steven Finn in May.As if to prove it, Evans, the 25-year-old former Surrey batsman, has set himself up to achieve the target he had set himself for when Finn interrupted his progress, namely to complete his first Championship century. He was 15 runs away at the close of the opening day.It was hard work at times, the result of a sluggish pitch and an appetite for work among the Nottinghamshire bowlers in spite of the building heat. You would expect it of Harry Gurney and Ajmal Shahzad, lithe young men both; less so, perhaps, of the more heavily burdened Luke Fletcher and the creaky Andre Adams. Yet all of them bowled a testing line and length and, for the most part, kept it up.But Evans maintained his concentration well and picked his moments for some nicely executed shots on both sides of the wicket, picking up a dozen boundaries. “It was attritional cricket and they bowled well and I played probably the worst I have played at the beginning of an innings all year but it was a matter of hanging tough and getting through it and I played a lot more fluently later,” he said. “I like to be attacking and I’ve got out in the past by trying to dominate at the wrong times and going at balls I shouldn’t be so I was pleased to come through the difficult periods.”Evans anchored at least a partial recovery by Warwickshire, who lost Varun Chopra to a gloved catch to second slip early and then saw William Porterfield leave a ball from Adams that clipped his off stump. Westwood rode his luck somewhat, surviving dropped catches on 32 and 50 before clipping a ball from Samit Patel straight to mid-on for 67.Tim Ambrose, who took it upon himself to up the pace of scoring after lunch, raced to 39 off 43 balls before brushing a leg-side delivery from Adams to be caught behind, but when Patel’s left-arm spin bowled Chris Woakes and Rikki Clarke fell to a stunning catch by James Taylor at midwicket Warwickshire felt danger welling up again at 213 for 6.Adams, who is 38 on Wednesday, finished the day on 3 for 49 from 24 overs, again underlining his durability. Adams is a strong man yet fragile in the sense that he needs to care for himself assiduously lest something goes badly wrong and ends his career. His skills with the ball, though, seem never to diminish.He willingly passes them on, too, frequently accompanying a younger bowling team-mate back to his mark, offering a word of encouragement or advice. He seems to have taken Shahzad under his wing in particular as Nottinghamshire try to mould the former Yorkshire quick into a bowler with more than simply pace and menace to his game.The improvement is coming, too. Adams apart, no one troubled the batsmen more and it was he who was left fuming when Westwood had his moments of luck as Patel and then Alex Hales failed to do their duty in the slips. Nought for 49 did not do him justice.

Chris Gayle is set to play his first Test in more than 18 months after being named in the West Indies squad for the first Test against New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jul-2012Chris Gayle is set to play his first Test in more than 18 months after being named in the West Indies squad for the first Test against New Zealand. Gayle has not played Test cricket since the tour of Sri Lanka in December 2010, and he will provide a major boost to the West Indies batting line-up, which has also regained Shivnarine Chanderpaul after he missed the final Test against England due to a side strain.The 13-man squad does not include the batsman Darren Bravo, who is West Indies’ second leading run scorer in Tests in the past year. Bravo, who has not managed a half-century in his past five Tests and scored his most recent fifty in the first innings of the first Test against Australia in April, is still recovering from a groin strain* sustained during the England tour.The top-order batsman Assad Fudadin was included after making his Test debut in the final match of the England tour. Sunil Narine was the only specialist spinner named in the squad and there was no room for the fast man Fidel Edwards, who was part of the Test side during the tour of England.The first Test against New Zealand begins in Antigua on Wednesday, before the sides move on to Jamaica for the second and final Test.West Indies squad Chris Gayle, Adrian Barath, Kieran Powell, Assad Fudadin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy (capt), Tino Best, Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine.*01:15 GMT, July 23, 2012: The story has been edited to state that Darren Bravo is still recovering from injury

Sri Lanka Cricket’s new interim committee will meet with Somerset
Entertainment Ventures on Friday to discuss the future of the Sri Lanka
Premier League

Tariq Engineer and Nagraj Gollapudi05-Jul-2011Sri Lanka Cricket’s new interim committee will meet with Somerset
Entertainment Ventures on Friday to discuss the future of the Sri Lanka
Premier League (SLPL). The previous committee, which created the tournament,
was dissolved last week by Sri Lanka’s sports ministry and a new panel was
appointed in its place. ESPNcricinfo understands that the new committee is
still getting up to speed on the tournament and will decide how to go ahead
with it once they have met Somerset.”We have not yet met the SLPL organisers,” Sidath Wettimuny, one of the
members of the new committee, told ESPNcricinfo. “The meeting is scheduled on
Friday.” Wettimuny also denied rumours that the tournament had been
postponed or that it would go ahead with only Sri Lankan players.The change in administration so close to the launch of the tournament is the
latest setback for the SLPL, which has already been hit by the BCCI’s
refusal to allow Indian players to take part. The BCCI had withheld its
permission on the grounds that Somerset, which owns the commercial rights,
would be handling the contracts for international players and that could
lead to complications should disputes arise over payments. In order to
assuage the Indian board, SLC was willing to back the Indian players’
contracts so that their financial interests were protected, but that was not
enough to satisfy the BCCI. The Indian board has also claimed that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi had a hand in the event, but SLC and Somerset have repeatedly denied
the allegation, as has Modi.The BCCI’s decision means the tournament does not have a broadcaster for the
lucrative Indian market, a situation that makes it much more difficult for
the SLPL to find a secure financial footing, something that the new
committee will have to consider.One potential incentive for holding the tournament as scheduled is the
Champions League T20 in September. The winner of the SLPL receives a spot in
that tournament and since Sri Lanka host Australia in August and September,
July is the only available window before the CLT20. However, given that the
SLPL’s first game is set for July 19th, SLC would have only 11 days
after Friday’s meeting to organise the event, including putting in place security
for the players and the anti-corruption measures required by the ICC.

Shakib Al Hasan has asked his team-mates to perform as a unit instead of playing as individuals following Bangladesh’s defeat to India in Dambulla

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Dambulla16-Jun-2010Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has asked his team-mates to perform as a unit instead of playing as individuals following his team’s six-wicket defeat to India in Dambulla.”We played well as individuals but not as a team, that’s an area we need to improve on a lot,” Shakib told reporters after Bangladesh were bowled out 167 in 34.5 overs in their first Asia Cup match. “We need to climb one step ahead and put team performances together, only then can we win some games. That’s the main area we have to concentrate on.”We are playing against teams better than us and we need to work out every time we go out and play. But it’s not been happening for the last six months. We are trying our level best and have been working hard at our game.”Bangladesh’s next game is against hosts Sri Lanka on Friday, and Shakib said his team needed to work harder on the disciplines that let them down against India. “Our middle-order batsmen didn’t play well and against spin,” he said. “Sri Lanka has some very good spinners and we need to discuss at the team meeting and do some assessment so that we can do well in next game.”Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, Bangladesh’s openers, had raced to 35 off 2.5 overs and at 155 for 4 in the 30th over, Bangladesh looked like setting India a stiff target to chase under lights. The introduction of Virender Sehwag’s off-breaks in the 31st over, however, triggered a collapse and six wickets tumbled for 12 runs – the last four falling without a run being added to the total. “Though we lost there are some positives we can take from this game especially the way the top order batsmen started off,” Shakib said. “In the first 10 overs we played really well, but it needs to be continued with our middle order batsmen.”

Curran’s 86 counters Vaughan’s six wickets with Somerset 190 in front – for nine – in the second innings

ECB Reporters Network11-Sep-2024Tom Curran launched an extraordinary assault on the Somerset bowlers as Surrey turned up the heat on the third day of the crucial Vitality County Championship match at Taunton.Making his first appearance in the competition for two years, the all-rounder smashed eight sixes and six fours in a game-changing innings of 86 from 75 balls, which rescued the Division One leaders from a perilous 228 for 8 in their first innings and allowed them to post 321 all out.Eighteen-year-old off-spinner Archie Vaughan finished with 6 for 102, while Jack Leach claimed 4 for 105. But Surrey had gained a slender advantage of four runs and soon built on it, reducing their opponents to 194 for 9 by stumps on a rain-interrupted afternoon, which saw Shakib Al Hasan take 4 for 83.Craig Overton was unbeaten on 40, having added 41 for the last wicket with a stricken Tom Banton (28 not out), batting heroically with a runner after suffering an ankle injury playing football in the warm-up for the day’s play.Only the most optimistic of Surrey fans could have expected a first innings lead when their team lost five wickets for 32 runs from a promising 196 for 3. Ryan Patel had added nine to his overnight score of 61 when top-edging a sweep off Leach to short third-man.Shakib made 12 before being caught and bowled by Leach off a leading edge. Then Vaughan added to his three second day victims by having Ben Foakes caught at short leg for 37 off 122 balls.It was 228 for 7 when Jordan Clark chipped a catch to the diving Tom Abell at mid-wicket off Vaughan, who struck again two balls later as Cameron Steel played down the wrong line and was bowled off stump.Surrey trailed by 89 runs. But Kemar Roach played a key role in contributing just five runs to a stand of 54 with Curran, who had begun his blitz with a six over long-on off Vaughan.Two more maximums off the same bowler followed by a four through the covers took Surrey to their first batting point and the all-rounder was far from finished. When Somerset skipper Lewis Gregory took the decision to remove Vaughan from the attack and introduce part-time spinner Lewis Goldsworthy, the left-armer’s only over went for 18 runs.The first ball was a full toss, dispatched over the mid-wicket boundary by Curran, who followed up with two straight sixes of the fourth and fifth deliveries. The story of the day was being transformed and by the time Roach was pinned lbw by Leach, Somerset’s lead was only 35.Still Curran ran riot, a six off Leach taking Surrey to a second batting point, celebrated by another six in the same over. A four off Vaughan gave the visitors the lead before the memorable exhibition ended with a skyed catch to long-on.Surrey team-mates gathered on their dressing room balcony to cheer Curran off the field, while Vaughan followed holding up the ball to acknowledge applause for his outstanding contribution to Somerset’s bowling. Lunch had been delayed and was taken between innings.Momentum was with Surrey and their bowlers soon increased it, reducing the hosts to 85 for five by the time rain forced an early tea. Vaughan was bowled playing around a delivery from Shakib and it was 12 for 2 when Goldsworthy suffered the same fate attempting to pull a short ball from Roach.Shakib claimed the key wicket of Tom Abell, lbw for 18 and, with Banton absent, Jordan Clark bowled Kasey Aldridge with his second ball of the innings before pinning Tom Lammonby LBW for 24.The final session, starting at 4.05pm, saw Gregory fall leg-before for 13, pushing forward to Shakib after a stand of 35 with Rew, whose composed innings of 29 ended when he edged the Bangladesh left-arm spinner to Dom Sibley at slip.Brett Randell fell cheaply and when Curran’s great day continued by having Leach caught behind for 13, Banton hobbled painfully and slowly to the crease with the total 153 for 9.Incredibly, with little or no foot movement, he struck four fours in helping Overton give Somerset genuine hope for the final day.

Opening stand of 108 in 11 overs sets tone as Vipers hold off spirited Thunder

ECB Reporters Network10-Jun-2023Danni Wyatt and Maia Bouchier smashed explosive fifties to set the foundations for Southern Vipers to beat Thunder and reach the Charlotte Edwards Cup final. England duo Wyatt and Bouchier shared a 108-run stand for the first wicket with scores of 76 and 56 respectively as Vipers chalked up 191 for 6 – despite Olivia Bell’s career-best 4 for 36.Although there were good contributions from Fi Morris, Deandra Dottin, Ellie Threlkeld, and Sophie Ecclestone, Thunder ended up 18 runs short on their Finals Day debut. Vipers will play the Blaze, who were unbeaten in the group stage, in the final at 4pm.The tone for a run-filled afternoon at New Road was set when Bouchier cut her first ball to the boundary after Thunder had stuck Vipers in to bat first. The first 11 overs were a masterclass of attractive power striking from Bouchier and Wyatt, the former preferring to go down the ground and the latter using her trademark cut plentifully.Both were released by England for this match, having spent time preparing for the upcoming Women’s Ashes Test, and proved why they are in the reckoning for the series against Australia. Their 108-run stand was Vipers’ highest partnership of the competition, as Bouchier won the race to a half-century. She got there in 29 balls to Wyatt’s 34, in the same over.Bouchier fell for her Charlotte Edwards Cup best of 56 – which included 10 fours – after a leading edge was caught by keeper Threlkeld after five seconds of hang time.Wyatt was unperturbed by the wicket as she pinged international team-mate Ecclestone for the only six of the innings – left-arm spinner Ecclestone would eventually return an uncharacteristically expensive 1 for 50.Vipers lost six wickets during the latter stages but maintained their run rate to reach 191 – their highest T20 score and the fourth-highest in the competition’s history.Those wickets were almost exclusively down to Bell – who had Georgia Adams caught at point, Wyatt crashing a huge full toss to deep midwicket, Freya Kemp bowled and Ella McCaughan stumped. The offspinner took two wickets in successive overs and boasts a scarcely believable tournament strike rate of 6.63 with her 11 wickets coming in just 12 overs.Thunder matched Vipers in the powerplay – both teams rocketed to 50 – thanks mostly to Morris’ six sweetly-struck boundaries. But they did lose Emma Lamb third ball when ramping Anya Shrubsole and Liberty Heap, bowled by Linsey Smith.Morris had come into the match on the back of scores of 36, 44 and 42 not out in her previous three innings – with Thunder winning four of their last five matches to reach Finals Day. She contributed with 36 before Georgia Elwiss plucked a stunning one-handed catch at full stretch.Former West Indies powerhouse Deandra Dottin needed only four balls before swishing a six over the leg side and continued with an array of attacking strikes in a 14-ball 24 before her aerial bombardment was ended by a catch at long-on.Ecclestone and Threlkeld put on a productive 42 before the former was caught three balls after being dropped for 33. Naomi Dattani skewed to point and the 25 needed off the final over was easily defended by Adams – as she picked up the wickets of Threlkeld and Danielle Collins for good measure.