Hartley sees off Thunder, prepares for Lightning

Surrey Stars 106 for 3 (Beaumont 45*) beat Lancashire Thunder 102 for 9 (Satterthwaite 34*) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Alex Hartley and Tammy Beaumont led Surrey Stars to a comfortable seven-wicket bonus point victory at Guildford, against an out-of-sorts Lancashire Thunder in the Kia Super League.

England left-arm spinner Hartley picked up figures of 3 for 11 off her allocated four overs, whilst Beaumont batted through the innings to finish on 45 not out, as Surrey Stars chased down 102 for 9, all but ending the chance of Lancashire Thunder reaching Finals Day.

Thunder were indebted to New Zealand international Amy Statterthwaite (34no), with the overseas star having to hold her composure with wickets falling all around her.

"We are over the moon, even better that we got the bonus point and we move onto Friday for another important game" said Hartley. "It seems to be coming out quite nice for me, it's nice to be in a little bit of form and hopefully I can keep it up."

After winning the toss and inserting their opponents into bat, Surrey got off to a perfect start as Thunder's overseas star Hayley Matthews was adjudged lbw off South African international Marizanne Kapp on the second ball of the match.

That brought Statterthwaite to the crease, but it was opener Emma Lamb (27) that gave Lancashire some momentum, taking 16 off the second over of the match. However, when she became Kapp's second wicket of the afternoon, the visitors began to implode.

Hartley and Laura Marsh worked well in tandem to thwart any impetus from their opponents, with the latter taking two wickets in an over including that of prize overseas star Deandra Dottin without scoring.

Danni Wyatt's first ball duck further put Thunder on the back foot and they were not helped by run-outs, as first Natasha Miles was left short thanks to Cordelia Griffith's fast reactions, before Marsh ran out Ellie Threlkeld.

Lancashire captain Statterthwaite could only watch from the other end as their opponents, cheered on by a crowd heading towards 1,000, seemed switched on from ball one.

Their day was summed up perfectly, as Natalie Brown was run out off the last ball, with Lea Tahuhu hitting directly from deep, as Lancashire limped to 102 for 9.

Surrey began their chase in style racing to 49 for 0 off their Powerplay overs, with Beaumont playing second fiddle early on to Bryony Smith (30), who blasted the ball to all parts, before going for one to many big shots, finding the safe hands of Statterthwaite off Dottin.

Stars captain Natalie Sciver became a victim to the West Indies contingent as she was caught in the deep by Dottin off Matthews, before Griffith was caught behind off Sophie Ecclestone, who was the pick of the bowlers for Thunder.

Beaumont and Kapp finished off proceedings to give Surrey Stars the bonus point win and they now go head-to-head with Loughborough Lightning on Friday for a place in Finals Day at Chelmsford.

Statterthwaite said "It felt like a tricky pitch to me, I didn't feel in throughout my innings but then the way they played showed that there was no real demons in it. It felt sticky at times but I think we were just too timid on it and we just didn't kick on."