All-round Perry keeps Lightning alive

Australian star Ellyse Perry hit an unbeaten 78 and took two wickets to take Loughborough Lightning to their first Kia Super League win of 2017 with an emphatic 50-run victory over Lancashire Thunder.

It keeps alive the Lightning's hopes of making Finals Day on September 1. It was a third successive defeat for the Thunder and eliminates them from the competition after another collapse when chasing left them well short of the required 141-run target.

Their chase got off to a bad start, as Perry removed both opener Emma Lamb and the key wicket of England star Sarah Taylor, both for just four runs in her first two overs.

The Thunder needed someone to play the Perry innings in their ranks and New Zealander Amy Satterthwaite looked like she could take on the role.

But Satterthwaite was beaten by Lucy Higham and stumped by Abigail Freeborn for 21 and that triggered a major Thunder collapse for the second consecutive match.

They lost six wickets in 33 balls for 27 runs to leave the score at 71 for 8 with another 70 runs needed from 31 balls.

A late cameo of 18 from Ellie Threlkeld, only the third to make double figures, dragged the total up but two quick wickets ended the innings with Lancashire all out for 90 and the Lightning winning with 2.4 overs to spare.

Beth Langston finished with the pick of the figures, taking 3 for 14 from her two overs.

Perry at the crease after just five balls of the Loughborough innings when her international teammate Elyse Villani was dismissed by Kate Cross for six. She struck a boundary from her first ball and began to build a partnership with 18-year-old opener Sarah Glenn.

Spin was to be Lancashire's key weapon once again. Danielle Hazell finished with the pick of the figures with 2 for 16 from her four overs and she removed Glenn for 22 - a second catch for Lamb.

Perry would find partners hard to come by. England international Georgia Elwiss came and went for 5 before Sonia Odedra was on her way for one from 10 balls, bowled by Ecclestone.

That left Loughborough 81 for 4 in the 13th but Perry carried on relentlessly, bringing up her half-century from 41 balls with two boundaries off Cross.

Lancashire would rue Sarah Taylor's missed stumping of Perry in the 16th over as she went on to share an unbroken stand of 39 with Freeborn, hitting the last two balls of the innings from Sophie Ecclestone for four to post a total of 140 for 5 which was well out of reach of the Thunder.

Loughborough face Surrey Stars at The Oval next Saturday.