Queen’s Park basked in late-summer sun and The Blaze never broke sweat.
A treble is still on. Very much on.
A ruthless nine-wicket demolition of Essex at Chesterfield not only secured a bonus-point win but locked in top spot in the Metro Bank Women's One-Day Cup table and a direct route to the final. They needed only to avoid defeat to reclaim first place from Hampshire. They did far more than that.
They made a statement.
Bryce sisters make chase a procession
Chasing 160, The Blaze lost Tammy Beaumont early, bowled by a rare moment of quality from Esmae MacGregor, one that jagged back and clipped the top of off stump. For a fleeting moment, Essex had something to cling to.
It vanished quickly.
From there, Sarah and Kathryn Bryce turned the chase into a training drill. The Scotland internationals walked in together and simply did not leave, stitching an unbroken stand of 132 that stripped every ounce of tension from the afternoon.
Sarah Bryce finished 70 not out, Kathryn 67 not out. Between them, they hit 22 fours and one six, Kathryn launching the only maximum and also threading the winning boundary with a huge 185 balls still unused. Essex’s bowlers offered too much width, too many hittable lengths, and the Bryces did not miss.
MacGregor’s early strike – Beaumont’s off stump sent cartwheeling – was the only breakthrough. After that, Essex’s attack rarely threatened. Fields spread, shoulders dropped, and the scoreboard raced. The Blaze romped home in just 19.1 overs, the kind of chase that drains an opposition’s belief and fuels a champion’s swagger.
Scrivens stands alone in Essex struggle
The margin of victory felt even more emphatic given how hard Essex had laboured for their 159.
Asked to bat first, they leaned almost entirely on captain Grace Scrivens. The 19-year-old produced a gritty, well-constructed 70, facing 116 balls and holding the innings together while wickets fell in clumps around her. Only Sophie Smale, with 20, joined her in double figures.
Early on, there was promise. Bryony Gilgrass, also 19, unfurled some attractive strokes in the powerplay as she and Scrivens tried to build a platform. That platform cracked when Cassidy McCarthy skidded one through to pin Gilgrass in front, then removed Jodi Grewcock cheaply as a cut flew straight to backward point.
Smale counter-punched, driving McCarthy for back-to-back boundaries, but The Blaze’s spinners soon tightened the noose. Lucy Higham trapped Smale on the back foot, then had Jo Gardner caught off a top edge into the leg side. From 80-2, Essex lurched to 89-6.
Kirstie Gordon, The Blaze captain and Scotland international, was at the heart of that collapse. Her left-arm spin accounted for Mollie Adams, another teenager, lbw playing back. Kathryn Bryce then joined the attack to bowl Liberty Heap, and Essex’s innings sagged.
Scrivens found some resistance in a 41-run stand with Sophie Munro, but even that partnership ended in frustration. A misfield tempted a risky single; hesitation followed; Munro was run out, and with her went Essex’s last real hope of a competitive total.
Gordon’s afternoon got better still when she dived forward to cling on to a sharp return catch and dismiss MacGregor. Scrivens’ lone hand ended in cruel fashion, a bottom edge crashing into her stumps, and Kathryn Bryce wrapped things up in the 46th over as Abtaha Maqsood holed out to long-on.
Essex were all out for 159. Scrivens had 70 of them. Gordon led the figures with 3-25, while Kathryn Bryce, Higham and McCarthy shared two wickets apiece. It was disciplined, intelligent bowling, backed by sharp fielding, and it left The Blaze’s batters with a target that looked light from the moment they walked out.
Blaze eye historic treble
This is not a side content with just one trophy. Or even two.
The Blaze have already banked silverware in the Vitality Blast and the Vitality T20 County Cup. Now they stand one win away from adding the One-Day Cup to complete a remarkable treble.
They will watch with interest as Hampshire, who briefly knocked them off top spot earlier in the week, face the winners of Saturday’s eliminator between Surrey Women and Somerset Women. The victor of that midweek clash will earn the right to meet The Blaze in the final at the Utilita Bowl on 19 September.
Whoever emerges, they know exactly what awaits: a Blaze side in form, battle-hardened, and powered by a bowling unit that squeezes and a top order that punishes.
On this evidence at Queen’s Park, anyone stopping them will have to play near-perfect cricket.
