[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Though the Pears surrendered pathetically in South Wales this week, Central Sparks showed considerably more spine on Wednesday's trip to Hove to face Southern Vipers.  With Amy Jones returning to the side and Chloe Brewer dropping out, the Sparks won the toss and elected to bowl in warm south coast sunshine. Disciplined bowling and a tight field kept boundaries to a minimum in the early stages, costing the Vipers a couple of wickets as they were forced to swing and innovate in search of runs. For the second game in a row, the introduction of Erin Burns in the middle overs bulldozed the opposition as five consecutive batters fell for just 39 runs, including the big scalp of Charlie Dean and an acrobatic caught-and-bowled which saw the Australian launch herself at full stretch to her left to grab an aerial hit towards long-off from Emily Windsor. Five-fer under the belt, the innings could have slipped away to a wagging tail as it did in Manchester, but three wickets from Georgia Davis - continuing her good start to the season after penning a full-time deal in the winter - mopped things up professionally and left the Sparks chasing 181 to win. There was no keeping up with the Joneses in the reply, as Eve and Amy broke the back of the chase with the former contributing her third half-century of the campaign before departing for 73. Abbey Freeborn supplied a useful 28, but fittingly, Burns was the one to loft the winning boundary over extra cover. The Sparks are back in action at Chelmsford on Thursday with the start of the Charlotte Edwards (T20) Cup.

Disappointment for the Rapids, on the other hand, whose first match of a rain-hampered season was the T20 semi-final today at Leek. Making a stiff 133 with the bat, Warwickshire then kept things tight during the chase to frustrate the Rapids and then bowl them out with the final ball.