The Blaze Reach Metro Bank Women’s One-Day Cup Final
The Bryce sisters turned Queen’s Park into their own backyard, and with it marched The Blaze straight into the Metro Bank Women’s One-Day Cup final.
Chasing 160 to seal top spot and a bonus-point win, they needed just 19.1 overs. By the time Sarah Bryce cracked the winning boundary, there were 185 balls left unused and Essex looked like they’d been run over by a side in a very different phase of their season.
Treble bid stays alive
This is a team hunting a treble. The Blaze already have the Vitality Blast and the Vitality T20 County Cup in the cabinet. All they needed here was to avoid defeat to finish above Hampshire, who had briefly nudged ahead after beating them at the Utilita Bowl in midweek.
They did far more than that.
Essex, rooted to the bottom of the table, were bowled out for 159 in 45.4 overs. The total always felt light on a good surface, and once the Bryce sisters settled, it looked positively flimsy.
Sarah finished 70 not out, Kathryn 67 not out, their unbroken stand worth 132. Essex’s bowlers barely laid a glove on them.
Scrivens stands alone
It had all started with a hint of promise for Essex. Skipper Grace Scrivens, still only 20 but already the heartbeat of this side, played with maturity and fight for her 70 from 116 balls. She opened up carefully, then began to find the gaps, shepherding an innings that never quite found a second pillar.
The next highest score was Sophie Smale’s 20. That told its own story.
The Blaze, having chosen to bowl, chipped away relentlessly. Cassidy McCarthy set the tone, skidding one through Bryony Gilgrass after the 19-year-old opener had played some fluent strokes in the powerplay. McCarthy struck again when Jodi Grewcock cut straight to backward point, and Essex’s early platform started to wobble.
Smale briefly counter-punched, taking McCarthy for back-to-back boundaries. The response was swift. Lucy Higham pinned her leg before, then induced a top edge from Jo Gardner that was safely pouched in the leg side. From 80-2, Essex crumbled to 89-6.
Kirstie Gordon, the Blaze captain and Scotland international, tightened the screw with her left-arm spin. She trapped another teenager, Mollie Adams, lbw playing back, then watched as Kathryn Bryce came on to bowl Liberty Heap. The innings, already fragile, began to fracture.
Scrivens found some resistance from Sophie Munro in a 41-run stand. It was the one period where Essex hinted at something competitive. Then a misfield lured them into an aborted single, Munro was run out, and any momentum vanished.
Gordon’s day improved further when she dived forward to cling on to a return catch and remove Esmae MacGregor. Scrivens’ vigil ended in frustration, a bottom edge cannoning into her stumps. Bryce then finished the job, Abtaha Maqsood holing out to long-on to close the innings.
Gordon’s figures – 3-25 – underlined her control. Kathryn Bryce, Higham and McCarthy each took two, and Essex never escaped the grip.
Early jolt, then total control
If Essex needed a spark, MacGregor briefly gave them one. Tammy Beaumont, the former England opener, lasted just long enough to see one ball that would have dismissed most players: a delivery that came back sharply and clipped the top of off stump. It was the one moment of genuine menace in an otherwise erratic new-ball spell.
From there, the chase turned ruthless.
Sarah and Kathryn Bryce, Scotland team-mates and domestic linchpins, dismantled the target with clinical precision. They were watchful for all of about an over. Once they gauged the pace of the pitch, they cashed in on anything remotely loose.
Sarah’s 70* came with 10 fours, threaded and driven with authority. Kathryn’s 67* was even more brutal: 12 fours and a six, including the shot that sealed the win. They drove through the line, cut hard, and punished anything short. Essex’s attack, already light on runs to defend, saw fields pushed back and still watched the ball race away.
The required rate vanished as a factor. The only question was how quickly The Blaze would end it.
Final awaits at the Utilita Bowl
Hampshire now wait to see who joins them in Wednesday’s eliminator, with Surrey and Somerset fighting for that right on Saturday. The winners will earn a shot at The Blaze in the final at the Utilita Bowl on 19 September.
On this evidence, whoever emerges will be facing a side in full stride, with a bowling unit that hunts in packs and a top order led by two sisters who look in no mood to let a treble slip from their grasp.
