Hursley Park win Kia Summer Smash Southern Festival to book place at The Oval

Sophie Mitchelmore (14 not out) and Mel Story (12 not out) achieved the improbable 14 needed off the last over to take Hursley Park on their way to the Kia Oval

An inspirational late hand from Sophie Mitchelmore allowed Hursley Park from Hampshire to steal an incredible last-ball victory over Ansty and book their place at the Kia Oval.

Hursley Park looked up against it when they needed 26 runs off 18 balls as the gloom descended and Ansty ran everything down in the field in the final of the new women’s T10 tournament at Wellington College, Berkshire.

But Mitchelmore (14 not out) and Mel Story (12 not out) achieved the improbable 14 needed off the last over to take Hursley Park on their way to the Kia Oval. It was a run-chase almost as gripping as the World Cup final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s two weeks before.

Ansty, the East Sussex club who were women’s national knockout runners-up this season, were stiff opposition, and had closed out their semi-final by defending 73 against Alton.

The sides know each other well: this was their fourth meeting out of six in league and cup this season. Several players on either side had been involved with Young Vipers, the youth section of the Kia Super League side Southern Vipers. And both teams had shown some of the best fielding and technical batting of the day.

Ansty’s successful opener pair of Frankie Angel and Lucy Western had posted 50 against Alton, and began solidly in the final. But both were eked out for nine apiece with just 18 on the board, and another quick wicket left Ansty up against it on 19 for 3.

That Ansty were able to post a competitive 68 for 4 was down to the hard-hitting allrounder Ellen Burt, who plays county cricket for Sussex.

Burt (34) turned the Ansty innings around, using all her experience and power to hit a crunching six over midwicket, four shimmying down the ground and six over long-on in a fourth-wicket stand of 49 with Tash Sole (15 not out), before Burt was stumped off the last ball of the innings.

Burt came straight out to open the bowling in the run-chase, but Hursley Park – nicknamed The Carrots for their bright orange shirts and green trousers – got off to a steady start with Danni Ransley (14) and Charlotte Taylor (10) putting on 24 for the first wicket.

Ansty upped the intensity in the field with some great pick-ups and pinpoint throws at the stumps, and Hursley Park wobbled.

The wickets kept falling and Burt was left to defend 14 off the last six balls. But Mitchelmore, an 18-year-old from Oxfordshire who had impressed earlier in the competition for her sharp bowling, turned the fourth ball off her legs and then lapped the fifth over short fine leg to leave the scores tied.

Mitchelmore dabbed the last ball past point to seal the victory, and her team-mates ran gleefully on to celebrate victory over their regional rivals.

This was the second of four regional festivals in the Kia Summer Smash, the new T10 women’s cricket tournament sponsored by Kia and run by The Cricketer.

Twelve clubs from across the southern region gathered at the sumptuous grounds of Wellington College for 15 matches and the right to play as one of four teams at the Kia Oval on Friday September 21. Despite overnight and morning drizzle, not a ball was lost to rain in a successful exposition of the women’s game at club level.

Plympton won the Western Festival on July 20 at Millfield School. The Northern and Midlands Festivals are still to come.

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