Diamonds fall short after Burns' career-best haul

Erin Burns has continued her red-hot start to the English summer, claiming her maiden T20 five-wicket haul in her first match of this year's Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Burns missed the Northen Diamonds' T20 season opener last Sunday but returned with a bang on Thursday with 5-25 from four overs to help her side restrict The Blaze to 136 after electing to bowl first against the Nottingham-based outfit.

It lifted the NSW veteran's tally for the English summer to 16 wickets at an average of 17 after taking 11 scalps in the Diamonds' opening six games of the 50-over tournament.

However, her T20 career-best wasn't enough to get the Diamonds over the line, restricted to 7-132 in reply to slip to their second straight loss to start the T20 campaign.

Like she has in the one-day competition, Burns took the new ball with her off-breaks and had immediate success as she bowled Blaze opener Marie Kelly with the third ball of the match.

The 35-year-old claimed another in the final over of the Powerplay before returning in the 14th over to remove Sarah Bryce for 18.

Burns was then tasked with closing out at the death, conceding 10 runs but taking two wickets in the final over to complete her first five-for in T20 cricket, eclipsing her previous best of 4-22 for Tasmania in 2015 in the original Australian Women's T20 Cup.

Burns also hit 22 of 25 balls from No.4 in the chase, but like teammates Lauren Winfield-Hill (38 off 37) and Hollie Armitage (28 off 23), she failed to capitalise on a promising start, run out by Josie Groves attempting a second on the arm.

Katherine Fraser (11no off five) hit a six off the first ball of the final over to give the Diamonds a sniff, but she and Grace Hall (2no) could only manage eight from the final five Kathryn Bryce deliveries to fall four runs short.

At Taunton, Amanda-Jade Wellington slammed an unbeaten 16-ball 31 in Wednesday's Charlotte Edwards Cup match, but her Western Storm also fell short by 21 runs short in pursuit of Central Sparks' 6-168.

The Sparks sit first in the T20 standings, ahead of the The Blaze in second on net run-rate with both sides recording victories in their opening two matches of the campaign.

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 The Blaze TBZ	9	8	1	0	0	0.641	0	3	35
2 South East Stars SOU	9	7	1	0	1	1.141	0	3	34
3 Central Sparks CEN	9	6	3	0	0	0.483	0	2	26
4 Southern Vipers SOV	9	5	4	0	0	0.459	0	1	21
5 Thunder THN	9	3	5	0	1	-0.546	0	1	15
6 Western Storm WST	9	1	6	0	2	-0.835	0	1	9
7 Northern Diamonds NOD	9	2	7	0	0	-0.349	0	0	8
8 Sunrisers SUN	9	2	7	0	0	-1.14	0	0	8

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points