Surrey sealed a comprehensive, six-wicket victory over Middlesex in the London Derby at Mill Hill on the back of a terrific bowling performance and a dashing half-century from Kira Chathli.
Daisy Feast (3/15), Amy Gordon (2/11), and Claudie Cooper (2/14) were the stars with the ball, keeping Middlesex under the pump and skittling them for 94, before Chathli’s quick-fire 53 off 33 balls all but clinched a second win in the competition for the Three Feathers.
Having elected to bowl first in this ECB Women’s 50-over fixture, Priyanaz Chatterji set the tone early on, providing a perfect start by having the dangerous Saskia Horley, who scored a brilliant 89 in her previous outing, caught by Charlotte Stubbs for two.
Post the breakthrough, the trio of Surrey seamers – Chatterji, Stubbs, and Charlotte Lambert – bowled with great precision and did not offer any opportunities to IFK Routledge and Georgia Irving to let loose, keeping Middlesex to 26/1 by the end of the powerplay.
The first big moment post the powerplay was the run out of Routledge for 18, after which Surrey’s spinners got in their groove and gave their hosts more setbacks with two further wickets in quick succession. Anjali Ketan had Riva Pindora caught by Gordon without scoring before Cooper cleaned up Sonali Patel for one, leaving the hosts 45 for four.
Middlesex’s fifth wicket partnership tried to drop the anchor and rebuild but once Cooper pinned Irving lbw for a resistant 22 off 51 balls, there was no stopping Surrey.
Feast, who replaced Ketan in the attack, found joy immediately and piled on the misery on Middlesex with two back-to-back scalps. Wicketkeeper Hermione Baxter Chinery holed out without scoring off Feast before Bhavika Gajipra was bowled by the same bowler, also for nought.
Gordon then brought herself on, in place of off-spinner Cooper, and collected two wickets from her three overs, ending Artemis Downer’s knock of 17 and getting Gayatri Gole caught by Feast for eight.
Feast picked up with the final Middlesex wicket – and her third of the match – in the shape of Anisha Dissanayake and the hosts were all out for 94 inside 30 overs.
Chathli walked out with Feast to begin Surrey’s run-chase, and before Middlesex got a moment to settle down in the field, Chathli – who plays for South East Stars and is set to feature for Trent Rockets in the Hundred – had her side racing towards their target.
By the seventh over, the Stars wicketkeeper-batter had struck five boundaries and Surrey were 41 for no loss, with 30 of those runs coming from Chathli’s blade. The opener went on to reach her half-century off 33 balls at a strike rate of over 160 before she retired out, with Surrey needing 23 more runs to win.
When Laxmi Johal (11*) hit the winning runs in the 18th over, the only consolation for Middlesex was that they managed to take the wickets of Feast (14), Madeleine Blinkhorn-Jones (1), and Gordon (6).
With this impressive victory, Surrey have 10 points on the board and are up to the second position in the table, overtaking Sussex for now, who are currently taking on Hampshire.
