Southern Vipers' Suzie Bates in action
©Reuters
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Cricket World Rewind: #OnThisDay – Southern Vipers lift Women's Super League trophy in 2016 to make inaugural edition a success
August 21, 2016 - Southern Vipers rendered themselves immortal in the history of the women's game by winning the inaugural edition of the Women's Cricket Super League.
Invigorated by the success of the inaugural season of the Women's Bash League in Australia in 2015-16, the Women's Cricket Super League kicked off in 2016. Western Storm and Southern Vipers qualified for the final and treated the fans with a close encounter that brought about a deserving culmination to the league.
Western Storm had a great campaign and began by beating Lancashire Thunder by 4 wickets. The team then registered victories against Surrey Stars, Southern Vipers, Yorkshire Diamonds and beat Loughborough Lightning in the semi-final to make it to the final.
Their opponents Southern Vipers got off to a winning start to the Women's Cricket Super League 2016 with a 6-wicket victory against Surrey Stars in their first match of the competition. The team then went on to beat Lancashire Thunder, Yorkshire Diamonds and Loughborough Lightning to become the first team to qualify to the final.
Batting first in the final, Western Storm got off to a rapid start with West Indies' Stafanie Taylor and New Zealand's Rachel Priest going after the Southern Vipers' bowlers. The two added 74 runs before Stafanie Taylor was dismissed on the second-last ball of the 11th over.
After Taylor's dismissal, Priest went on to bat till the 16th over and complete an impressive half-century. Western Storm lost some of their steam towards the end and were restricted to 144/5 from their 20 overs.
Suzie Bates and A Brindle were the best bowlers for Southern Vipers and picked up two wickets each. While Bates was a bit expensive, Brindle conceded just 15 runs from her 4 overs.
The Southern Vipers had a good response, led by New Zealand opener Suzie Bates and Vipers captain Charlotte Edwards. The two added 78 runs within the first 10 overs and were way ahead of the game when Edwards was dismissed in the 10th over.
However, with Suzie Bates getting run-out for a well-compiled half-century at a strike rate of 113.04 within two overs of Edwards' dismissal, things could have turned out to be tricky for the Vipers.
Georgia Adams, McGlashan and Greenway played sensibly to take the team to a victory on the second-last ball of the penultimate over to win the game by 7 wickets. Southern Vipers thus rendered themselves immortal in the history of the women's game by winning the inaugural edition of the Women's Cricket Super League.
England and Western Storm captain Heather Knight said of the competition: "I think the league is a brilliant thing for women's cricket, and if there is potential for it to one day rival the IPL, that would obviously be great.
"It's going to bring the standard of the game up and help grow interest in the women's cricket. T20 is a good way to get people into the game and it's popular among young people - not to mention fun to play."
Western Storm's Stafanie Taylor and Southern Vipers' Suzie Bates were the only two players to score more than 200 runs in the competition, both at healthy strike rates and averages of around 50.
Interestingly, all-rounders Taylor and Bates were also the top wicket-takers in the inaugural edition with 11 and 9 wickets respectively. Taylor was a sensational hit in the competition as she became the only player to score more than 200 runs and pick up more than 10 wickets in the competition.
© Cricket World 2020