TAUNTON, England (CMC) — West Indies Captain Stafanie Taylor was brilliant with both bat and ball as she fired Western Storm to a comfortable five-wicket victory over Loughborough Lightning in the Women’s Super League here yesterday.
Opting to bowl first, Storm’s attack was spearheaded by Taylor’s off-spin which earned her superb figures of four wickets for five runs from four overs, as Lightning crumbled to 108 for nine off their 20 overs.
Australian Ellyse Perry top-scored with 25, anchoring a 30-run opening stand with Amy Jones (21) and a 24-run second-wicket partnership with Paige Scholfield (15) to get Lightning up to 54 for one in the eighth over.
But Taylor intervened, snatching three wickets in one over — the 10th of the innings — as Lightning slumped to 59 for five and never really recovered.
In reply, Western Storm reached their modest target in the final over with Taylor top-scoring with 34 off 32 deliveries, captain Heather Knight getting 24, and Georgia Hennessy, 23.
They lost Rachel Priest for a ‘duck’ to the fourth ball of the innings without a run on the board, but Knight and Hennessy added 41 for the second wicket to put the run chase back on course.
Once Knight departed, Taylor shepherded the innings, putting on 21 for the third wicket with Hennessy and a further 30 for the fifth wicket with Sophie Luff, who was unbeaten on 18 at the end.