Harmanpreet Kaur shines in an important Thunder win

India T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored a match-winning 74 to lead Lancashire Thunder to victory over Yorkshire Diamonds. With this loss, Yorkshire Diamonds are out of the finals day race with one game to go for them.

Earlier today, Diamonds captain Lauren Winfield won the toss and decided to field first. Nicole Bolton looked straight on fire for Thunder striking three fours scoring 14 in the first over. Things didn't continue the same way they started with the run rate slowing down and then Brunt and Langston picking up the wickets of Georgia Boyce and Amy Satterthwaite.

Harmanpreet Kaur joined Nicole Bolton to resurrect the Thunder innings. The foreign imports played really well-smashing boundaries and thus bringing up their 50+ run partnership. Immediately after that, Katherine Brunt brought an end to Nicole Bolton's innings of 46. Kaur started smashing boundaries on one end and was losing partners at the other end.

She scored 74 off 44 balls which included 4 fours and 6 sixes before getting out on the penultimate ball of the Thunder innings to Brunt. Brunt picked up 3 wickets for the Diamonds while Levick and Langston bagged 2 each. Thunder put up the total of 154 on the board.

Things didn't start well for the Diamonds as they lost their skipper, Lauren Winfield, for 2 in the very first over getting trapped on the leg by Kate Cross. Thea Brookes and Beth Mooney started building the innings with a partnership of 47 runs from 44 balls. After that, both lost their wickets within a span of an over and were soon joined by Chamari Atapattu (9) in the pavilion.

Katherine Brunt soon joined Alice Davidson-Richards to chase down a near impossible target. Both started scoring consistently finding boundaries at regular intervals. The partnership stayed for 61 runs off 37 balls before Davidson-Richards was out 33(28). Soon, Kimmince got out to Ecclestone and Brunt had too much to chase.

Katherine Brunt remained unbeaten on 44 (25) smashing 6 fours in her innings. Kate Cross picked up a wicket and scored 2 run outs. Alex Hartley bagged 2 wickets for Thunder.

Thunder beat Diamonds by 9 runs. Diamonds are out of the finals day race. Thunder will face Vipers in the final game of the league stage on 18th August.