Bears Women v Essex Women
Vitality Blast
Edgbaston
Wednesday 18 June 2025 | 11:30am start
Team News
Bears Women: Meg Austin, Davina Perrin, Sterre Kalis, Laura Harris, Charis Pavely, Natasha Wraith (wk), Issy Wong, Millie Taylor, Hannah Baker, Georgia Davis (C), Phoebe Graham.
Essex Women: Lauren Winfield-Hill (wk), Grace Scrivens (c), Lissy Macleod, Cordelia Griffith, Maddie Penna, Jo Gardner, Jodie Grewcock, Sophia Smale, Eva Gray, Esmae MacGregor, Abtaha Maqsood.
Match Details
Umpires: Russell Warren & Rob Bailey
Match Referee: Helen Pack
Scorers: H Vernon & AJ Ruffles
Toss: Essex Women win the toss and elected to bat
Result: Bears Women won by 2 wickets
Match Highlights
Match Report
Warwickshire continued their impressive Women’s Vitality Blast charge with a tense two-wicket win over Essex at Edgbaston.
Georgia Davis’s side recorded their fourth win in five games after chasing down Essex’s 150 for three. Cordelia Griffith (47 not out, 36 balls) and Madeline Penna (41 not out, 42 balls) pulled the visitors round from 56 for three but never escaped the shackles of a disciplined attack.
Warwickshire then slipped to 43 for four in reply but recovered to reach 154 for eight with one ball to spare as Charis Pavely struck a dynamic unbeaten 68 from 40 balls with five fours and three sixes.
Essex chose to bat and started solidly as openers Lauren Winfield-Hill and Grace Scrivens added 44 in 35 balls before Scrivens fell to the antepenultimate ball of the powerplay when she skied a slog at Phoebe Graham to mid-wicket.
Laura Harris took that catch and accepted another four balls later when Alice Macleod drove Hannah Baker to extra cover. Those two blows for Essex were quickly followed by a big self-inflicted one. Winfield-Hill, on 30 from 23 balls, was called for a quick single by Griffith, hesitated and was run out by bowler Davis who chased the ball down with the precision and purpose with which she used, as a police officer, to chase villains round Walsall.
The loss of three wickets for 12 runs in 11 balls required some shoring up and Griffith and Penna stemmed the collapse before seeking to accelerate. Each hit six fours in an unbroken stand of 94 from 75 balls to assure a competitive, if less than imposing total.
MacGregor, leading wicket-taker in the competition, inflicted brisk damage on Warwickshire’s reply with two wickets in her second over. Davina Perrin chipped a low full toss to mid on and Meg Austin top-edged a leg-side scoop to the wicketkeeper.
Essex’s bowlers continued to exploit Warwickshire’s top-order carelessness as Natasha Wraith swung Eva Gray to deep mid-wicket and Sterre Kalis missed an attempted cut at Abtaha Maqsood’s first ball and was bowled.
That left Warwickshire 43 for four which could have been worse had an early big hit to long on from Pavely off Sophia Smale not passed through the hands of Penna for six. Pavely survived to add 43 in 28 balls with Issy Wong (33, 25) who batted responsibly to rebuild the innings but then misjudged a second run and was beaten by Joanne Gardner’s throw.
Harris swept Gray to short fine leg but Pavely pulled MacGregor into the Hollies Stand for six to leave Warwickshire needing 35 from five overs. Successive fours took her to a 31-ball half-century and another handsome six, off Jodi Grewcock, put the equation firmly into the home side’s hands with just three needed from the last over.
Scrivens started it with a dot ball and a wicket – Davis caught at mid on – but two singles followed to level the scores with two balls left and Baker struck the next to the mid-wicket boundary.
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