Sunrisers Leeds kept themselves in contention for The Hundred eliminator while dumping Welsh Fire out of the women’s competition in a one-sided contest at Headingley.
The victory sets up a virtual quarter-final with Manchester Super Giants, who sit in third two points ahead of Sunrisers on 18, at Emirates Old Trafford on Tuesday afternoon.
With both sides coming off the back of two wins, Sunrisers won the toss and surprised nobody by electing to bowl. A nervy start saw Cassidy McCarthy deliver four wides in five balls before Kate Cross got rid of Sarah Bryce lbw.
Freya Kemp then joined Georgia Voll and was fluent from the off in what turned out to be a standout innings.
The economical Deepti Sharma trapped Voll in front to leave the game nicely poised at 61-2 at the halfway mark.
Hannah Baker then broke the game wide open with two quick wickets, an excellent catch by Phoebe Litchfield dismissing her compatriot Georgia Wareham, followed by a peach to bowl Orla Prendergast, both for ducks.
Annabel Sutherland, who had earlier dropped Kemp, then immediately put her down again off Baker to give the Fire a lifeline.
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But two more wickets in six balls saw Fire’s run-rate plummet as they aimed just to survive the 100 balls, Baker finishing with 2-15.
Kemp, however, had other ideas. She upped the ante with a six off Jess Jonassen and then blitzed her way to an unbeaten 72 off 45, but a total of 121-8 felt underpowered against the in-form Super Giants line-up.
And so it proved as the remarkable Litchfield continued where she left off against Birmingham Phoenix on Friday.
Shots all around the ground, including three sixes, saw her to a 23-ball 55 and when she went, the score was 92 off 52 and the game as good as done.
Bryony Smith had gone without scoring but Lauren Winfield-Hill reprised her support role from Friday and Sutherland was in imposing form, hitting an 18-ball 28.
It was left to skipper Dani Gibson and Jonassen to finish it off, winning with 26 balls to spare and enabling the Sunrisers to live to fight another day.
Baker said: “The wicket did a lot for us to be fair and I was helped out by the fielders massively.
“Personally it’s about spinning it as much as I can but also varying my pace so it’s not predictable.”
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