Sarah Bryce praised The Blaze’s all-round performance after a crushing win over South East Stars in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. 

The East Midlands outfit cruised to a 133-run win on DLS in Beckenham after the fixture was shortened to 44 overs per side. 

That didn’t prevent the visitors from racking up 318 batting first, though, with Bryce's 71-ball 81, a quickfire 71 from Ella Claridge, and a run-a-ball fifty from Marie Kelly giving the Blaze impetus. 

Heather Graham then claimed six wickets - her maiden List A five-wicket haul - as the hosts were restricted to 185 all out, having been 69/4.

“I think it was just an all-round great team performance to be honest,” she said.

“We had really nice partnerships and Ella obviously at the end put us up to a really good total, so we were really happy at the halfway stage, but we knew it was a really good pitch and knew we’d have to bowl well.

“They have some dangerous players in their line-up, but when we got off to that good start it definitely made it much more challenging for them. 

“And Heather bowled brilliantly today, I’m definitely glad she’s on my team.”

The result means The Blaze have secured two wins in eight days against the Stars, with the first coming in the Charlotte Edwards Cup final. 

Bryce was keen not to take the matchup lightly, though, particularly having been dealt defeat earlier in the season. 

“We talked about the fact that we didn’t want to take it for granted and maybe get complacent with it being a different format,” she said. 

“They beat us quite heavily in the first game of the season in the 50-over stuff, so it was nice to come back in and get a good win on the board.”

Bryce admitted she was somewhat taken aback, though, with Bryony Smith’s decision to bowl first having won the toss, with the opportunity to make first use of a friendly surface embraced by the opener

“I was a little bit surprised we were asked to bat first,” she said.

“It’s known to be a very good pitch here so I was more than happy to have a bat first.

“I guess there were a few overhead conditions but, yeah, we would have liked to have batted first. It was a really nice pitch and every batter made the most of it.”