Smriti Mandhana stars in another Storm victory

Heather Knight won the toss and decided to field first. It was not the kind of batting display you would want to see from the 2 time Super League finalists as Vipers looked totally out of touch. They had lost 4 wickets at the halfway mark with all of Bates, Wyatt, Brindle and du Preez in the pavilion. Beaumont missed the game due to a concussion in the last game and was replaced by Carla Rudd.
Sara McGlashan tried to be the saving grace scoring 31 from 30 but lost her wicket to opposition skipper Heather Knight in the 12th over. Southern Vipers didn't recover from there and started losing wickets before getting bundled out for 90 with 11 balls left in the innings. Claire Nicholas was the top wicket-taker for Storm finishing 2 for 17 in 4 overs.
The way Mandhana and co. have batted in the last games, it certainly looked like a walk in the park for them and they didn't disappoint. Rachel Priest started off with some stroke-play dislodging every odd delivery across the boundary. She scored 30 in just 14 balls with 6 fours and a six before getting dismissed by Arran Brindle. And then a 54 runs partnership followed between the in-form Smriti Mandhana and Heather Knight which led them straight to victory with 63 balls to spare.
Mandhana top scored with an unbeaten 43 off 27 balls which included 6 fours and a six and was awarded the Player of the Match award.