Grace Harris’s sparkling 63 from 33 balls led Surrey to a 5-wicket win over the Bears as they became the inaugural Vitality Blast Women’s champions in front of their home fans at the Kia Oval.
Match Summary
Surrey Women vs Warwickshire Women, Final
Surrey Women 154/5 (16.4 ov)
Warwickshire Women 153/9 (20 ov)
Result – Surrey Women won by 5 wickets
Scorecard
Runrate
The Australian all-rounder grabbed hold of a final which needed a heroine, striking two sixes and seven fours to steer the home side to victory. Fittingly, Southwark-born Kira Chathli, who watched her heroes here as a child, made the winning hit with 20 balls to spare. Amu Surenkumar and Emily Arlott took two wickets apiece.
Earlier, The Bears struggled to build partnerships with player of the match from the semi-final Issy Wong top scoring with 31 and Laura Harris Sister of Grace a typically ferocious 25 from 11. Phoebe Franklin was the pick of the Surrey attack with 2-16, while two superb runouts helped to further restrict the Bears.
Meg Austin caressed the first ball of the innings for four only for Alexa Stonehouse to bowl her with an in-swinger.
Davina Perrin’s miserable day with the bat was completed when Capsey castled her for nought and it was hero of the eliminator Issy Wong who gave the powerplay momentum with four boundaries and a five from an overthrow.
Stonehouse ended her fun with another ball that hit the stumps and Sterre Kalis was run out by a magnificent throw from the deep by Ryana MacDonald-Gay.
Natasha Wraith played nicely for 23 but she and Surenkumar fell in the space of four balls, the latter to a lightning quick stumping by Kira Chathli off Franklin.
Worm
Laura Harris, was dropped early on and went on the offensive, twice clearing the ropes. Three other boundaries took the Australian to 25, but going for another big hit off Dani Gregory she found the hands of Franklin in the deep.
Franklin removed the dangerous Emily Arlott too, but Millie Taylor (20 not out) marshalled the tail, leaving Surrey 154 for the title.
Surrey’s chase suffered an early setback when Danni Wyatt-Hodge, prolific in the competition, lost the chance to be leading run-scorer as she holed out in the deep.
Skipper Bryony Smith swept and pulled strongly, but fell to the last ball of the powerplay from Surenkumar and when Wraith whipped off the bails to stump Capsey off Hannah Baker, Surrey were floundering at 42-3.
Three Sophia Dunkley boundaries from Millie Taylor’s opening over raised hopes for the side playing on their home ground and the England international hit Baker back over her head for six in the next.
That was as good as it got for Dunkley who overbalanced trying to hit Surenkumar over the top, Wraith’s fast hands doing the rest.
Grace Harris though took up the baton to play the match-defining innings, driving fours cleanly through cover and mid-off.
Emily Arlott was dispatched to the sightscreen for six and swept for four, but Paige Scholfield perished in the deep trying to imitate the shot to give the bears renewed hope.
Harris though remained to reach 50 at a strike rate of 200, before clubbing Taylor into the seats at midwicket as Surrey scampered home
Quotes
Surrey batter Grace Harris said: “Sometimes it is harder to chase 140 than 160 because you think if you just knock it around, you’ll just get the runs, whereas with 160 you have to go to pick up a boundary an over. Teams can get too complacent with 140 and I’ve been involved in a team which has done that before chasing 120 in a final with the heat ands we lost to Adelaide Strikers because we just knocked it about and didn’t really take the game on.
“So it was fantastic to make sure we stayed with that run chase. Fair play to the girls on what was a very good squad effort.
“It was a fairly nice wicket, so our bowlers did very well to set up that game.
“I was a little bit nervous (When her sister Laura Harris was teeing off). I was thinking at long-off just hit it down someone else’s throat. You want her to do well and it’s not like I would have hashed the job but if I’d caught it I would have been a little bit disappointed.
“I’m happy she got out when she did because it could have been a 180-chase if she’d hung on.
“I think Phoebe (Franklin) has genuinely been our player of the season. Each game she’s either taken a crucial wicket or hit 20 off 10 at the back end and given us a bit of momentum in lower scoring games. In any other team she would bat a lot higher and get a lot more opportunity than what she does, but when given the opportunity, she is definitely a player that’s taken it. She has done so well in this T20 tournament and I have been rather impressed with her skill set. It’s not just the fact she can hit a line and a length, it is the fact she can bowl slower balls as well or come up with a Yorker when required. Then at the back end with the bat she fully owns her scoring shots.
“I probably get more nervous on the side-lines than I do out in the middle. When I am in the centre I’m like ‘This is good fun. How good is it to get a chance to bat. Sitting on the side-lines I say to our group alright introverts you are going to have to leave because I’ve got to chat or I’m going to find this day tough.”
The Bears and England seamer Issy Wong said: “I’m really proud of our girls. We knew it was going to be tough to play two games of cricket against the two best sides in the country and win them both.
“I think we can be super proud of how we played in that first game and how we stuck in towards the end. We haven’t had a hot meal since yesterday and it is such a short turnaround.
“We have such a young squad. I’m in the oldies when we play football at 23, so we have got so much learning we have taken from this season.
“|It is a good deck, so it is always nice to bat here, but also to bowl, but also to bowl as there is a bit of pace in it. So you come thinking it is a really good place to bowl and a really good place to bat. It is a good cricket wicket.
“I am really lucky with that role that I get to do both and make the most of it. I’m only at three when we lose a wicket in the powerplay, so there is always one part of me that is like ‘go on.’ I quickly get stood down if we don’t lose a wicket.
“I know there are prettier batters and more effective batters as well, but I love doing it, so if they keep asking me I’ll keep saying yes.
On having her joy for the game back again she added: “Outwardly it hasn’t always been like that. The last couple of years have been pretty challenging, but it has been nice to come back to what is my best personality for playing cricket. That comes from being in a good place with my skills and tactically as well I feel I’m in a really good place. It’s the best job in the world isn’t it.”
©Cricket World 2025
