Essex Women Under-18s will face Staffordshire at Grantham Cricket Club in the last four of the ECB County Cup after defeating Surrey by 26 runs in New Malden.
The clash with Staffordshire, set to take place on Thursday 31 August with a start time of 10:30am, was set up last Friday after the young Eagles successfully defended 227-4 by bowling out their hosts for 201.
Having been inserted after losing the toss at the LSE Sports Ground, Jessica Olorenshaw led the way for the visitors with a sparkling unbeaten 89 from 66 deliveries which included 11 fours and one six.
She was ably supported by opener Bella Johnson’s 69, who in turn shared an opening partnership of 85 with her namesake Bella Johnson.
Lily Foster took two wickets for the young Brown Caps, but she was outshone with the ball by Essex’s Jasmine Westley, who returned the best individual figures of anyone in the match with 4/43.
Johnson and Sally Chapman shared four more evenly, while Prisha Bedi and Cara Castleman also picked up one scalp apiece in dismissing Surrey short of their target.
Charlotte Lambert was the source of most resistance for the hosts, hitting a swift 39-ball 60, while openers Laxmi Johal, who also claimed a run-out, and Kashish Choudhary both passed 30.
However, it was the performance of Westley, who cleaned up the tail with three wickets in one over as Surrey fell from 199-6 to 200-9 to see their hopes of victory slip away.
Staffordshire reached this stage with a comfortable six-wicket win over Yorkshire at Moddershall Cricket Club, chasing down the visitors’ 160-6 inside 29 overs thanks to Meg Austin’s 75.
The other semi-final will see Devon take on Nottinghamshire, with the former seeing off Berkshire by two wickets in their quarter-final at Exeter CC.
Meanwhile, the latter knocked out Suffolk at Ipswich CC by 49 runs, owing much of their successfully-defended total of 219-6 to an unbeaten 103 from Maddie Ward.
