It was the big day, Finals Day, and Surrey Stars had come into it as the lowest-placed of the three teams – they had qualified on the last day of the round-robin stage, while Loughborough Lightning and Western Storm had reached there well before.

On the day, though, the team that had stuttered their way through to the final had the last laugh, and it was two of their biggest stars, Natalie Sciver and Lizelle Lee, who came to the party to seal the deal for them.

In the semi-final, it was captain Sciver’s 43-ball 72* that took Surrey to 162-5 before she returned 2-21 and Dane van Niekerk 2-27 to stop Storm at 153-6 for a nine-run win.

On to the final then, against Loughborough, and it was one-way traffic as Lee decided to make the stage her own. The South African opening bat, one of the most feared hitters in the women’s game, sent the ball to the fence at County Ground in Hove 13 times and over it on six occasions to race to a 58-ball 104.

“We started really well but hit some bumps along the way and showed great resilience.”

To sum up what has been an incredible come-from-behind story for the Stars, who had won only one of their first four games before scripting a turnaround, here’s their stalwart, Sarah Taylor: “We didn’t have the best of starts to the tournament so to come back and play the way we have, some really hard-fought games … to play the perfect game in the final means a lot.”

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Lizelle LeeGlobal T20 LeaguesKia Super LeagueKia Women's CricketMatch Coverage