India’s Jemimah Rodrigues continued her stellar form in the Women’s Cricket Super League (England’s T20 tournament) on Thursday, scoring a 27-ball 60 to help Yorkshire Diamonds defeat table-toppers Western Storm by five runs.
The T20 match was reduced to 10 overs-a-side due to rain and the Diamonds were put into bat first. They lost wickets at regular intervals and could manage 104/4 in their 10 overs. And that was possible entirely due to the effort of Rodrigues.
The 18-year-old walked into bat at No 3 and was confident from the get-go. She hit 10 fours and two sixes in her knock and was eventually declared the player of the match. The second-highest run-getter for the Diamonds was Hollie Armitage with 19 runs off 21 balls.
In reply, Western Storm lost their first three wickets quickly (including opener Smriti Mandhana for 7 off 6) before Fran Wilson (45 not out off 20) and Sophie Luff (31 not out off 18) put on an unbeaten stand of 76 runs for the fourth wicket. But they could only manage to reach 99/3 in their 10 overs and ended up suffering their first defeat of the season.
Rodrigues has been in phenomenal form right through the tournament. The right-hander has amassed 402 runs in 10 innings, with one century and two half-centuries. Her run of scores after scoring the first half century read: 58, 42*, 32, 43*, 112*, 60.