By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Kia Oval
Southern Brave overturned the two-time winners Oval Invincibles in a rain-affected game and have “still a lot to play for” despite being on the brink of exiting the tournament.
The reigning champions, Southern Brave chased 83 runs for victory after a 90 minute rain delay in the first innings shortened the game to 65 balls per side.
Dani Wyatt’s 46 not out steered home the run chase but it was Lauren Cheatle’s two big wickets of Chamari Athapaththu and Alice Capsey pre rain delay that set up a victory for the visitors.
The Australian left arm seamer spoke about how she used the favourable conditions to get the best out of her bowling individually and as a collective unit.
“I just tried to swing the ball up front and there was a nice breeze across the ground today, so it was handy to bowl with that wind. The conditions are quite conducive to swing here at the Oval so to pitch the ball up and swing the ball was what we were trying as a bowling unit, and we did a pretty good job.”
Cheatle then explained why the toss made a big difference not only to conditions when bowling first but also to providing an advantage to the chasing side.
“We knew there was some weather around and it kind of swings here at the Oval so bowling first was something everyone wanted to do and as such it was a great toss to win.”
“We thought it was going to rain again and we were told the rain was going to come again, so we had the Duckworth Lewis out on the sheet, and we were following it on the score board. It is handy to know exactly what you need and off how many balls so that was good for us.”
The Southern Brave have only just won their first game of the season on the sixth attempt and although not mathematically eliminated, they will be relying heaving on other results to go their way.
“Those first five games were quite tricky for us when we had one asset go well the other didn’t and I think today was one of the games where we kind of put a whole performance all together. There is still a lot to play for the Brave as finals are potentially out of the question but what this team stands for and what we want to do is win for our pride and for our fans.”
