Off-spinner Lucy Higham played the starring role with a career-best five for 19 as The Blaze made a winning debut in front of a healthy crowd at Trent Bridge, launching their Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign with a 59-run defeat of Central Sparks.
Opener Tammy Beaumont top-scored with 60 for the East Midlands team, backed up by England colleague Sarah Glenn (38) and Georgie Boyce (28), and though The Blaze just missed out on reaching the full 50 overs, Higham chipped in with batting total of 24 to amass a score of 212 to defend.
England quick Issy Wong was out of sorts with the ball for Sparks, yet three wickets each for Emily Arlott, Grace Potts and spinner Georgia Davis looked to have secured a chaseable target.
Katie George top-scored for the visitors with 31 at number eight as Blaze skipper Kirstie Gordon, who has taken over from Lightning captain Kathryn Bryce in the role, celebrated a winning start.
After the early loss of Marie Kelly, who found short midwicket from Arlott’s first delivery to depart without scoring, Beaumont and Boyce added 66 in 11.4 overs to give The Blaze the fired up opening to the season they were looking for after winning the toss.
Their progress was checked by wickets in three consecutive overs by Potts, the 20-year-old right-arm seamer. Boyce, who had scored three of her five boundaries in a loose second over from Wong, was lost to Potts being given leg before wicket, before the Bryce sisters - Kathryn and Sarah - both feathered catches to ex-Lightning wicketkeeper Abbey Freeborn.
Beaumont completed a half-century from 70 balls with her ninth boundary as she and Glenn set about rebuilding the innings from 86 for four, Glenn hitting two boundaries in one over off Potts.
Spinners Davis and Hannah Baker dragged the balance back towards Sparks by sharing the next four wickets, beginning with Beaumont’s dismissal for 60 after adding 45 with Glenn when off-spinner Davis struck the front pad as the opener attempted to work to leg.
Davis picked up a second, removing Blaze’s overseas signing Nadine de Klerk before Hannah Baker, the England Under-19 leg-spinner, turned one sharply to bowl former Sparks team-mate Glenn, who had been dropped on 22. Davis then took her third wicket, bowling Beth Harmer middle stump, before Arlott returned to remove Gordon and Higham as The Blaze were dismissed in the 47th over.
Back out after the interval to defend a total of 212, Ballinger and De Klerk opened the bowling as Blaze looked to keep the pressure on into the second innings.
After a cautious start, cracks soon appeared in Sparks' defences. Attempting to dish out punishment to Glenn at the end of the England leg-spinner’s opening over, Issy Wong succeeded only in finding the safe hands of Higham on the boundary.
After Chloe Brewer fell leg before to Kathryn Bryce, Higham struck arguably the most important blow, taking what turned into a difficult return catch as Jones - prolific in this competition in previous years - sent the ball soaring skywards off a top edge which drifted in the breeze as it came down. At the halfway point, Sparks were well off the pace at 76 for three, where The Blaze had been 130 for four.
The combination of off-spinner Higham with left-armer Gordon denied Sparks the acceleration they needed and the visitors suffered further losses as Freeborn paddled straight to the fielder behind square to give Higham a second success, to which she quickly added a third, inducing Ami Campbell to offer an easy caught-and-bowled.
Arlott was victim number four for Higham, via a stumping, which she raised to five by bowling Davis, either side of Gordon dismissing Davina Perrin via a catch at mid-off.
George, who hit five fours in her attempt to keep Sparks in contention, fell caught and bowled by De Klerk, who completed the win by bowling Baker with the second ball of the 49th over.
*******
The Blaze's return to Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge's newest residents return home on Sunday 4 June, as part of a T20 double-header with Notts Outlaws.
Secure your seats by 3 May to benefit from the best prices...