Kate Coppack and Cordelia Griffith shine as Sunrisers win their first title

After finishing as the yearly champions of the wooden spoon, Sunrisers achieved their goal of being the final regional winners of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

The league began in 2020, and Sunrisers did not win a match in the first three years. However, they defeated South East Stars by 27 runs thanks to Kate Coppack‘s 4 for 27 and Cordelia Griffith’s half-century.

On her way to 93, Alice Davidson-Richards forged half-century partnerships with Aylish Cranstone and Phoebe Franklin, but Coppack’s career-best tore apart the Stars top order, leaving them 53 for 4.

When the rain finally arrived, the Stars had reached 212, which Griffith assaulted with her fourth fifty of the previous five innings.

Sunrisers finished last in this particular edition of the event; counties will take the place of the regions, and in 2025, the Metro Bank One-Day Cup will serve as the women’s 50-over competition. Despite this change, Sunrisers will still contend for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

Sunrisers got Stars to commit and then destroyed their best order, especially with the help of the ultra-accurate Coppack, who gave her a best-of-four-for-27 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

One of the more intriguing characters in the game is Coppack. She is a full-time lawyer whose parents run an alpaca farm and who has represented Peru in international cricket. She is, however, mostly a lethal new-ball bowler. They were comfortably ahead of the 94 DLS par score at 121 for 3.

Though it was more visually pleasant to have the large hooping inswinger to castle a swinging Paige Scholfield, the ball to bowl Alexa Stonehouse was seam-bowling perfection, kissing the top stump.

when a mix-up with Davidson-Richards, she hit the stumps once more, this time to run out Bryony Smith. An over later, when the powerplay had ended, she pinned Kira Chathli in front.

Following Coppack’s withdrawal from the attack following a first-half performance of 3 for 17, Davidson-Richards flourished and formed a partnership with Cranstone. Davidson-Richards’s ability to know when to use her power and when to push the runs over a large outfield was the foundation of the stand, which finally had a value of 70.

Using the previous strategy, a picked-up ping through midwicket, she hit her fourth consecutive fifty in 61 balls. However, Cranstone was stuck at the other end, hurting herself while slumping backward and needing help to get back to the dressing room.

Following in Cranstone’s footsteps, Phoebe Franklin gave Davidson-Richards the business they needed to succeed. However, Coppack’s return saw Franklin dismissed after making a solid 33, starting the collapse that resulted in the final five wickets falling for 39 runs as Davidson-Richards ran out of partners.

After Mady Villiers dismissed her leg before, Davidson-Richards eventually ran out of steam seven runs short of a second Stars century. Ryana MacDonald-Gay and Tilly Corteen-Coleman were recklessly run out. Kalea Moore was out after being leg before.

The Sunrisers’ comeback began appallingly when Jo Gardner was given a golden duck by youngster Corteen-Coleman. From that point on, though, the highly effective Griffith saw the ball like a pumpkin and hit a string of progressively centred shots to the boundary.

Throughout their 79-run partnership, Grace Scrivens mostly just passed over the strike throughout her 54-ball fifty, which featured tender cover drives, pumping pulls, and sweeps to the boundary.

Griffith, a Sunriser from the start, left the game as she attempted to cover a wide ball from Moore, allowing the spinner to get one to stay in the pitch and bowl Jodi Grewcock.

Twenty-five overs into the inning, and around fifteen minutes later, local lighting forced the players to leave before a deluge of rain turned the outfield into a lake. It was called off at 4:20 p.m., after Sunrisers had finished their zero-to-hero arch.