What a magnificent day of women's county cricket the fifth round of the One Day Cup has just provided! If you weren't at a game then why not?
The headlines were :-
- No less than five individual hundreds
- Two great run chases
- One almost great run chase
- And a final ball thriller
Hampshire v Surrey
Hampshire 272/5 v Surrey 259 ao - Hampshire won by 13 runs
Inserted by Surrey Hampshire made serene, if rather languid, progress to 272/5 with the top four batters rarely troubled by the Surrey attack. Abi Norgrove helped herself to 81* off 81 balls and Maia Bouchier, who had just been told that she had not made either the England World Cup squad or the ODI squad, 78 off 91 balls. Despite a good platform Hampshire could not kick on to a big score in excess of 300. 272 looked eminently gettable.
However when Surrey succumbed to 81/6 it looked anything but, but Danni Wyatt had only just walked to the crease at number 7 for Surrey. When she left, with 119 runs to her name, Surrey were within 22 runs of victory and still had 14 balls to come. The trouble was they only had one wicket, having lost their previous three to run outs. Eight balls later Danni Gregory became the fourth run out victim in a row as Hampshire claimed the win and went to the top of the table.
Somerset v Essex
Somerset 268/9 v Essex 269/5 - Essex won by 5 wickets
Somerset, denuded of their England players - Knight, Dean and Gibson - without reason given, were perhaps the underdogs in this game, despite Essex's inability to win a game until now. As it was they posted a challenging 268/9 thanks to 56 from overseas Anika Learoyd, 79 from young keeper Katie Jones and 53* from all-rounder Alex Griffiths. The question was could Essex hold their nerve in the run chase?
At 21/3 the answer seemed to be No. All hope seemed to be pinned on 21 year old England hopeful Jodi Grewcock. She has been in sparkling form with the bat this season with previous scores of 80, 77 and 44. Essex needed her to go big....and she obliged! With assistance from Jo Gardner (50) and Flo Miller (54*) Grewcock hit a serene 120* to secure Essex's first victory of the 2026 season. She has rightly been named in England's ODI squad v New Zealand and it would be good to see her given the chance to shine on the international stage.
The Blaze v Warwickshire
Warwickshire 302/5 v The Blaze 303/7 - The Blaze won by 3 wickets
Warwickshire's imposing total of 302/5 was built around a One Day Cup record stand of 197 between Katie George (98) and Charis Pavely (128*) as The Blaze's bowlers toiled in vain at Trent Bridge.
No doubt the Warwickshire camp were feeling pretty confident going into the second innings, and 40 overs in, with The Blaze on 198/4 and still needing 105 off the last 10 overs, they would have been gently shepherding their chickens towards the counting machine. But the heroine of lost causes, Orla Prendergast (56 off 31) and the canny Georgia Elwiss (31 off 17), scattered the chickens to all parts of the field. A series of double-digit overs took the equation to 48 off the last five overs, and then 17 off the last two, although Prendergast had perished to the last ball of the 48th. Wong got Elwiss with the second ball of the next over, but then proceeded to bowl a legside full toss to Higham which she gratefully swotted for 4. As Wong looked to get out of the over she bowled another waist-high full toss to Gordon who smashed it for 6. The Blaze claimed the two they needed from the first two balls of the last over for another Get Out of Jail win.
Hampshire 272/5 v Surrey 259 ao - Hampshire won by 13 runs
Inserted by Surrey Hampshire made serene, if rather languid, progress to 272/5 with the top four batters rarely troubled by the Surrey attack. Abi Norgrove helped herself to 81* off 81 balls and Maia Bouchier, who had just been told that she had not made either the England World Cup squad or the ODI squad, 78 off 91 balls. Despite a good platform Hampshire could not kick on to a big score in excess of 300. 272 looked eminently gettable.
However when Surrey succumbed to 81/6 it looked anything but, but Danni Wyatt had only just walked to the crease at number 7 for Surrey. When she left, with 119 runs to her name, Surrey were within 22 runs of victory and still had 14 balls to come. The trouble was they only had one wicket, having lost their previous three to run outs. Eight balls later Danni Gregory became the fourth run out victim in a row as Hampshire claimed the win and went to the top of the table.
Somerset v Essex
Somerset 268/9 v Essex 269/5 - Essex won by 5 wickets
Somerset, denuded of their England players - Knight, Dean and Gibson - without reason given, were perhaps the underdogs in this game, despite Essex's inability to win a game until now. As it was they posted a challenging 268/9 thanks to 56 from overseas Anika Learoyd, 79 from young keeper Katie Jones and 53* from all-rounder Alex Griffiths. The question was could Essex hold their nerve in the run chase?
At 21/3 the answer seemed to be No. All hope seemed to be pinned on 21 year old England hopeful Jodi Grewcock. She has been in sparkling form with the bat this season with previous scores of 80, 77 and 44. Essex needed her to go big....and she obliged! With assistance from Jo Gardner (50) and Flo Miller (54*) Grewcock hit a serene 120* to secure Essex's first victory of the 2026 season. She has rightly been named in England's ODI squad v New Zealand and it would be good to see her given the chance to shine on the international stage.
The Blaze v Warwickshire
Warwickshire 302/5 v The Blaze 303/7 - The Blaze won by 3 wickets
Warwickshire's imposing total of 302/5 was built around a One Day Cup record stand of 197 between Katie George (98) and Charis Pavely (128*) as The Blaze's bowlers toiled in vain at Trent Bridge.
No doubt the Warwickshire camp were feeling pretty confident going into the second innings, and 40 overs in, with The Blaze on 198/4 and still needing 105 off the last 10 overs, they would have been gently shepherding their chickens towards the counting machine. But the heroine of lost causes, Orla Prendergast (56 off 31) and the canny Georgia Elwiss (31 off 17), scattered the chickens to all parts of the field. A series of double-digit overs took the equation to 48 off the last five overs, and then 17 off the last two, although Prendergast had perished to the last ball of the 48th. Wong got Elwiss with the second ball of the next over, but then proceeded to bowl a legside full toss to Higham which she gratefully swotted for 4. As Wong looked to get out of the over she bowled another waist-high full toss to Gordon who smashed it for 6. The Blaze claimed the two they needed from the first two balls of the last over for another Get Out of Jail win.
Yorkshire v Durham
Durham 290/8 v Yorkshire 290 ao - Match tied
In a game that resembled a festival match between Current Yorkies and Old Yorkies it seemed inevitable that this would be a game that would swing violently to and fro.
Having lost their top four for just 53 Durham looked to be in a whole heap of trouble, but for once their middle order came to the party, albeit with some assistance from the Yorkshire fielding. Bess Heath made a belligerant 70 off 52 balls and Phoebe Turner ran a couple off the last ball of the Durham innings to take her to a maiden List A 100. After their batting performance on Saturday against Hampshire (bowled out for 118) 290/8 looked a reasonable return against the Tier One newbies.
Yorkshire were once again indebted to Jess Jonassen (104) for keeping them in the game as she struck her second consecutive ton. Ably assisted by Sterre Kalis (79) Yorkshire needed just 62 off the last 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand. It should have been a stroll in the park, but a tad too much strolling led to a string of careless run outs. Suddenly Yorkshire were 269/9. They still only needed a run a ball but the last pair were at the crease. By hook or by crook they took the game to the last over still needing 10 to win. When Rachel Slater pumped the second ball of the over careering over the square leg boundary for 6, just three were needed off four balls. A dot and two singles left the scores tied with a ball to come. Slater swung, missed, ran and keeper Wilson underarmed the ball at the stumps from ten metres and hit. Woolston was run out and the game was tied.
In a game that resembled a festival match between Current Yorkies and Old Yorkies it seemed inevitable that this would be a game that would swing violently to and fro.
Having lost their top four for just 53 Durham looked to be in a whole heap of trouble, but for once their middle order came to the party, albeit with some assistance from the Yorkshire fielding. Bess Heath made a belligerant 70 off 52 balls and Phoebe Turner ran a couple off the last ball of the Durham innings to take her to a maiden List A 100. After their batting performance on Saturday against Hampshire (bowled out for 118) 290/8 looked a reasonable return against the Tier One newbies.
Yorkshire were once again indebted to Jess Jonassen (104) for keeping them in the game as she struck her second consecutive ton. Ably assisted by Sterre Kalis (79) Yorkshire needed just 62 off the last 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand. It should have been a stroll in the park, but a tad too much strolling led to a string of careless run outs. Suddenly Yorkshire were 269/9. They still only needed a run a ball but the last pair were at the crease. By hook or by crook they took the game to the last over still needing 10 to win. When Rachel Slater pumped the second ball of the over careering over the square leg boundary for 6, just three were needed off four balls. A dot and two singles left the scores tied with a ball to come. Slater swung, missed, ran and keeper Wilson underarmed the ball at the stumps from ten metres and hit. Woolston was run out and the game was tied.
Martin Davies
30/IV/2026
30/IV/2026
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