Nottinghamshire’s Women experienced mixed fortunes on their Bank Holiday away game double header as they bounced back from a Sunday defeat at Hampshire to record victory at Somerset on Monday.
Both County Championship Division One games, played over 50 overs, saw Notts bat first, with the first, at Havant, after being inserted by Hampshire.
Sonia Odedra and Georgia Boyce started positively for the visitors in putting on a fifty stand for the opening wicket.
However, after Boyce had scored 21 from 38 balls, she was caught by Ella Chandler off the bowling of New Zealand international Suzie Bates (3-24).
Yvonne Graves (3) came and went quickly as she was bowled by Charlie Dean (3-31), but skipper Odedra found another capable partner in Jodie Dibble, as they added 80 for the third wicket.
Odedra eventually fell for 50 from 99 balls, a second wicket for Dean, which sparked the loss of six wickets for 34 runs.
Aside from Dibble, who was lbw to Bates for 44, Kirstie Gordon was the only other Notts player to reach double figures, with 15 not out off 23 balls, as the total closed on 186-9.
In reply, opening duo Bates (54) and Dean (22) put on 74 for the opening wicket to put them firmly in control an further contributions from Emily Windsor (49) and Katie George (23) meant the hosts were always in control of the run chase.
Gordon picked up 2-29 from her 10 overs, while Odedra, Dibble and Lucy Higham claimed a wicket each.
Against Somerset at Nailsea, Notts won the toss and opted to bat and suffered the early setback of Odedra (2) falling to World Cup hero Anya Shrubsole.
That did not deter first Boyce (27) and Graves (57), and then Graves and Dibble (36) carried the score to 161 with some excellent batting.
Just like against Hampshire, though, a flurry of late wickets fell as seven fell for 31 runs as Georgia Tulip (3-26) and Lorraine Szczepanski (3-43) cutting through the middle and lower order.
The total of 193-8 nevertheless proved more than enough to win the match as Somerset were skittled for 81.
Higham took the key wicket of Shrubsole for 28, bowling her, to finish with 2-4 off 2.4 overs, but the star turn was Gordon, who claimed 5-26 and help polish off the tail ruthlessly.
Head Coach Martyn Kiel said: “Ideally, we wanted two wins from the weekend. The plan both days was to bat first, get a decent score and then defend those totals.
“After getting into a good position against Hampshire we lost too many wickets for few too runs leaving us 30 runs short of where we should have been. That left us too much to do in the field despite taking it to the 49th over.
“Monday followed a similar pattern, as we weren’t able to capitalise on our hard work following a maiden 50 for Yvonne Graves after a winter in Australia, despite posting 193-9.
“But a first 5-fer in Nottinghamshire colours for Kirstie Gordon and better standards in the field brought us out of the weekend in much more positively.”
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