A comprehensive win and a rain-enforced abandonment ensured Nottinghamshire Women recorded an unbeaten season as they secured the Women’s County T20 East Midlands Group title in a double-header against Derbyshire at Collingham Cricket Club.
Notts were eight points ahead of their East Midlands neighbours going into the fixtures, and so, with four points for a win, Derbyshire needed to win both to stand a chance of preventing a title win for the home side.
However, a quick-fire 42 from Yvonne Graves in the first game of the day helped Notts to a competitive 135 off their 20 overs, before Sonia Odedra starred with the ball to seal the win, and create an unassailable lead at the top of the group.
The hosts were on their way to a second victory of the day when four wickets from Rebecca Widdowson helped bowl Derbyshire out for 66 inside 19 overs, but rain had the final say before Notts could chase the total, and kept the margin of victory to 12 points in the East Midlands Group.
Having won the toss in game one, Sonia Odedra and Yvonne Graves quickly set to task amassing a challenging total.
Averaging 47.6 coming into the final-day showdown, Odedra looked in imperious form, and Graves struck lusty blows with regularity to take the home side to 65 for none at the half-way stage of their innings.
Momentum was somewhat stalled soon after when Odedra was caught by Emma Thatcher off Sachi Pai’s bowling for 28, and Graves was dismissed for 42 from 36 balls, caught by Alicia Shaw off the bowling of Bethan Ellis, but, with a foundation firmly in place, the Nottinghamshire middle order looked to push the scoring.
Teresa Graves (8) fell to Ellis trying to do just that, caught by Thatcher, but Jodie Cook and Michaela Kirk pressed on at just short of a run-a-ball.
When Kirk was caught by Pai off Ellis’ bowling for 15, the hosts were carried to their final total by a couple of Hannah Hughes (9*) boundaries. The away side required just shy of seven runs-per-over for the win to keep their own title hopes alive.
Despite Derbyshire taking ten runs from the first over, Notts gained the ascendency by turning the screw with a miserly spell of bowling, a hallmark of their victorious season.
Odedra took two wickets for six runs in her three overs to leave Derbyshire behind the eight ball in the early stages, Natasha Allen (15) was caught by Jodie Cook for the captain’s first before Sachi Pai saw her stumps uprooted.
At 30 for two from seven overs, it was always going to be a tricky fight back for the visitors, and so it proved to be.
Derbyshire were unable to take Lucy Higham, Amy Gauvrit or Amelia Kite at the required run-rate through the middle overs, and, despite keeping wickets intact, and an impressive 49 not out from 57 balls for Bethan Ellis, the away side staggered to 105 from their 20 overs, some 30 runs short of the target to hand Notts the win.
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Having seen success in Notts’ decision to bat first earlier in the day, Derbyshire captain Lauren Tuffrey opted to do the same in the second match.
Amelia Kite got the first wicket of the game in the third over, Allen caught by Yvonne Graves for six trying to catalyse a quick start.
It fell to Rhiannon Knowling-Davies and Sophie Munro to supress any fightback from the vistors, the pair swapping the bat for the ball having assisted Notts to a match winning total against Leicestershire the previous week.
Derbyshire took just 16 from four overs and lost their second wicket, that of Pai caught by Graves, before Cook and Odedra took the baton, themselves bowling economically, and the former snaring the wicket of Harriett Parkin for seven from 27 balls.
At 34 for three from ten overs, Derbyshire required something of a counter-attack, but it proved hard to come by with Graves and Widdowson applying equal pressure when they came on to bowl.
The pressure forced cracks in the batting, the away side losing six wickets in a frantic 21 ball period.
Graves bowled Tuffrey for 12 in the 15th over before dismissing Molly Dytham the same way three balls later. Widdowson then joined the wicket-taking act, beating Suzie Ljubojevic’s defences first ball before bowling Alicia Shaw in the same over.
It went from bad to worse for the visitors when, two overs later, they lost Thatcher and Sophie Hoyes in consecutive Widdowson deliveries to take her wicket tally to ten for the season, and Graves tied up the innings, catching Jessica Thatcher off her own bowling in the 19th over.
Tasked with scoring 67 for the derby-day sweep, Notts were prevented from doing so by heavy rainfall. It did, though, ensure the Green and Golds upheld their unbeaten season, a record which saw five wins and three rain-enforced abandonments.
You can view the scorecards from both games here.
The next phase for women’s cricket in the region will see a handful of Nottinghamshire players representing Lightning, before the inaugural edition of The Hundred later in the season.