Strong powerplay performances with bat and ball from The Blaze helped end host Surrey’s unbeaten start to the 2025 Vitality Blast women’s competition.
Cassidy McCarthy (1-17) and Kirstie Gordon (3-35) reduced Surrey to 1-3 in pursuit of 170 to win and it was always an uphill task from there.
Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s blistering 60 from 33 balls (3 6s and 7 4s) briefly raised home hopes but they were bowled out in the last over 17 runs short.
Earlier, Georgia Elwiss (61 from 46) and Marie Kelly (46 from 29) shared an opening stand of 92 in 57 balls and despite a collapse in which Tash Farrant and Grace Harris got two wickets apiece, their total of 169 proved more than enough.
Kelly was the first aggressor, clearing the ropes off first Farrant and then Corteen-Coleman. Elwiss then drove and swept Kalea Moore for three successive fours as the visitors reached 63-0 at the end of the powerplay.
A lofted drive and a streaky edge for four by Kelly kept up the pressure, but with a 50 in sight, poor calling left her stranded at the same end as Elwiss.
From there, wickets tumbled. In-form Kathryn Brice lofted Tilly Corteen-Coleman to Harris at mid-off, the first time she’d been dismissed in the tournament, and her sister Sarah made only one before nicking MacDonald-Gay through to Chathli.
A risky second run saw the end of Heather Graham and neither Ella Claridge or Michaela Kirk stayed long.
Elwiss who’d surveyed the slide from the other end reached 50 from 40 balls, but after she lobbed a catch to short third, only a few late blows from Josie Groves got The Blaze to 169.
Surrey made the worst possible start losing skipper Bryony Smith for nought, part of a wicket-maiden for McCarthy.
Chathli also went without scoring courtesy of a fabulous running catch by Kirk and when in-form Paige Schofield was bowled first ball for nought by Gordon Surrey were 1-3.
Phoebe Franklin blocked out Gordon’s hat-trick ball, but soon afterwards Wyatt-Hodge was nearly run out were it not for a wild throw with both batters at the same end.
Reprieved, Franklin swept Gordon for six, while Wyatt-Hodge caressed one through the covers as a 50-stand came up in 39 balls.
The England opener cleared the ropes at mid-wicket and again behind square to race to 50 in 27 balls, but Groves bowled Franklin to end the stand at 69.
When Wyatt-Hodge’s bold effort was ended by McCarthy’s sharp catch at backward point, hopes rested on big-hitting Harris for a late rescue act.
The powerful Australian hit Groves back over her head for six, but perished later in the over trying to repeat the shot and despite some brief fireworks from Macdonald-Gay, Surrey were destined to fall short.
Surrey head coach Johann Myburgh said: “We’re disappointed. We didn’t play as well as we know we can. We showed some fight as it wasn’t a great start in both powerplays, so to get the game as close as we did shows a bit of the character of the side, but some of the basics we didn’t get right today.
“Credit to The Blaze, they transferred some pressure at the top with both bat and ball.
“There’s no need to overreact. We have our processes whether we have won or lost games. We’d won four from four but still had things we think we can do better as a group.
“If you take away the first three or four overs from both innings, that is a totally different game.
“I’d have backed us to get 170. We back our batters all the way down. We were 1-3 but even then we still had belief in the side as we have people in the lower order with skills who can change the game.”
ECB Reporter’s Network supported by Rothesay
