All-round Sutherland powers Sunrisers Leeds into Eliminator

In a winner-takes-all clash between Sunrisers Leeds and Manchester Super Giants, Annabel Sutherland starred with bat and ball, scoring 62* off 36 before taking 2-17, to secure the Sunrisers a spot in Friday’s (August 14) Eliminator clash against Southern Brave.

Asked to bat first, Phoebe Litchfield struck five boundaries in her 12-ball 27 to get her team off to a breezy start. Danielle Gibson (24 off 13) and Lauren Winfield-Hill (20 off 15) made useful contributions, but Sutherland, who was particularly brutal at the end, dominated the innings. She struck three sixes off Ryana MacDonald-Gay to end the innings, also reaching her fifty in the process, as Sunrisers hammered 35 off the last ten deliveries.

Tasked with chasing 167, the Super Giants made a positive start with the openers sharing a 42-run stand. Jess Jonassen bowled Smriti Mandhana (28 off 17) off the 24th ball but Grace Scrivens kept the tempo up while Richa Ghosh, promoted up the order, struggled to keep up. When Scrivens and Ghosh were both thrown out after the 54th and 56th balls, respectively, the Super Giants were thrown into an unrecoverable tailspin.

The scoring rate stalled, the asking rate soared, and none of Super Giants’ incoming batters able to find their rhythm. Meg Lanning (10 off 15) was bowled by Jonassen, while Kathryn Bryce (15 off 14) was retired out.

The Super Giants’ chase unraveled in the latter stages as they lost a flurry of wickets, in stark contrast to the Sunrisers’ acceleration at the death. Eventually, they fell 41 runs short.