Back-to-back defeats in Blast
May 18, 2026SUFFOLK Women’s 1st XI suffered back-to-back defeats in Dorset to start their Vitality Blast campaign, writes Jack Oastler.
The south coast side’s batting twice proved too strong – chasing totals of 169 for 1 and 154 for4, the visitors fell 33 and 46 runs short respectively.
Several Suffolk players threatened briefly with the bat through the day, but could not build on promising foundations.
The day got off to an inauspicious start, with Dorset taking ten off Maddy Reynolds’ opening over. Evie Booker and Amber Bradnam tightened things up for a while, but Georgina Wilson took 12 off Booker to end the powerplay on a high.
Wilson dominated the early stages of the partnership, but Mamta Kothiyal shook off Suffolk’s pressure with five boundaries in seven balls. By the time she finally fell to leg spinner Sophie Hughes, Dorset had 85 on the board and eight overs to come.
Darcey Clarke came to the crease with a hefty platform to build on, and signalled her intent with consecutive boundaries off Hughes. From there, Dorset asserted their dominance, taking 74 from their last seven overs.
Clarke reached a scintillating 28-ball half-century with a boundary off Booker’s final over, while Wilson batted through the innings for 75 not out.
The target of 170 looked steep for an unfamiliar, albeit deep, Suffolk batting line-up; that challenge grew further when Kelsey Rees bowled Amelie Clarke in the first over.
Liv Locke and Dia Nair (pictured above) struck back, with a boundary each in the next over, before Nair, fresh off a quickfire 58 in the week for Essex’s second XI, took it a step further with a six off Lizzie Williams.
Nair struck two further boundaries, but Rees had her caught for 20 off nine balls. Louise Bucknell’s introduction took things from bad to worse as Booker and Hughes fell to her first two balls. Debutant Alice Brand kept out the hat-trick delivery, but could only manage one off the over.
Locke had watched all this chaos from the other end, and tried to settle things down with two boundaries off Flo Harry’s first over. Harry struck back, though, bowling the opener for 22 to leave Suffolk 55 for 5.
Analise Merritt was the next to try and assert herself on the game; she found the fence twice in the eleventh over, to take 13 from it. In all, she hit four boundaries on her way to 21 off 10 before being stumped – another good cameo, ended too soon.
With wickets tumbling, and ten an over needed, Brand (30) was joined by fellow debutant Harriet Goodey. The pair put on 34 – the third such partnership of the innings – but when the latter fell for 15, more than 40 were still needed with two overs to go.
Rees (3 for 19) and Bucknell (3 for 18) closed things out with a wicket each, giving Mia Clark her third and fourth stumpings of the innings, to complete Dorset’s 33-run victory.
Batting first seemed to work for them in the morning, so Dorset chose to do the same in the second game of the day. The move paid immediate dividends – Booker’s first over went for 12 – but Suffolk struck back, with skipper Reynolds (2 for 18) seeing off Kothiyal for five.
Wilson and Clarke kept the runs flowing, adding 44, but the former became Reynolds’ second victim thanks to a Bradnam catch.
Hughes (2 for 34) was introduced, and the all-rounder quickly curtailed Dorset’s Clark-Clarke partnership – sadly, before Amelie Clarke could bowl at them.
That brought home captain Victoria Pack to the crease; she looked dangerous, hitting Merritt for six, but fell to Hughes for 17.
Having watched from the sidelines in game one, Dorset’s middle order batters were eager to take their opportunity. Clark and Louisa Heap took 15 off Hughes’ last over, then plundered 16 from the 20th to take their partnership to 62 off 42 and their side’s total to 154 for 4.
It was a lower target than the morning, and Amelie Clarke hit the ground running to give Suffolk some optimism. Once she fell for 21 off 15, though, things went rapidly downhill.
Wickets fell in clusters; runs were nowhere to be found. By the time Reynolds came to the middle, her side were seven down for just 47.
Goodey hung around for a while, giving Reynolds a chance to show off her batting – No.9 often doesn’t do her justice. She took 16 off the twelfth over, to maintain a glimmer of hope for Suffolk.
That was where the comeback peaked, though, and despite an admirable job by the all-rounder – 40 off 30 balls to carry her team through to the end of the innings – Suffolk fell well short.
Tags: Dia Nair, Dorset, Maddy Reynolds, Vitality Blast
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