One of the disadvantages of being out of the country for much of August is missing out on a lot of the Kia Super League, the women’s T20 competition in England. My local team, Western Storm, includes England superstars Heather Knight and Anya Shrubsole, as well as West Indies captain, Stafanie Taylor. They are a side to be reckoned with.

The campaign started badly with a bad away loss to defending champions, Southern Vipers, who had beaten us in the final last year. However, during Worldcon we roared back with a comfortable win over Loughborough Lightning at Taunton. Over the weekend we scored a massive 10-wicket victory over Yorkshire Diamonds. Today the Storm were at the Oval to play league-topping Surrey Stars. Sadly the result did not go our way.

So where does that leave us? With 4 of the five matches played by each team, both the Stars and the Vipers have qualified for the finals. Those will be on September 1st, and three teams will qualify. In the semi-final the third-placed team in the league will play the second. The winner of that will play the top-placed team in the final.

The Stars look likely to finish top being unbeaten and having an easy final match against Loughborough Lightning. The Vipers are safe in second place, but who will finish third? The Storm and Yorkshire are currently both on 8 points, with Yorkshire having the better run rate. However, Yorkshire have to play the Vipers in their final game, whereas the Storm has a relatively easy home game against winless Lancashire Thunder. Technically the Lightning could still finish third if they beat the Stars and both Diamonds and Storm lose, but the smart money should be on the Storm making the finals.

Sadly I can’t make it to Bristol for the game. I’ll be helping teach Cat Rambo’s Writing and Gender class on Saturday evening and I can’t be at the game and be home in time for that.

If the Storm do get to the finals all bets are off. In T20 anything can happen.