Katie George shines as Central Sparks come up just short
Central Sparks were edged out by six runs in a Charlotte Edwards Trophy thriller against The South East Stars at Canterbury.
Katie George made 53, but needing to hit seven from the last four balls she was caught on the boundary by Claudie Cooper off Bryony Smith, leaving the Sparks all out for 170, with Abbey Freeborn unable to bat due to injury.
The Stars had made their highest score of the season, 176 for six, despite an impressive display by stand-in Sparks captain Georgia Davis, who took three for 13. Phoebe Franklin, who’d been awarded the PCA player-of-the-month trophy before the game, blasted 52 from 27 balls and captain Smith made 47.
Erin Burns (39), Davina Perrin (25)and Bethan Ellis (29) chipped in with useful contributions for Sparks as they came up just short.
Sparks coach Lloyd Tennant said: “We’re getting close in quite a few of these games and just falling short, so it’s little moments in the game when we’ve just got to learn to get across the line, and when we’ve got sides under pressure we’ve got to keep them under pressure.
“We probably lost a couple of wickets at the wrong time.
“Katie George played beautifully, it looked like she was going to get us home, but unfortunately we lost a player (Freeborn) through injury so she had to go and whack it in that last over.”
