Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy: Northern Diamonds beat Southern Vipers for first major trophy

Player of the match Lauren Winfield Hill scored 470 runs in the competition at an average of 48.33

Northern Diamonds beat Southern Vipers by two runs in a thrilling finish at Lord's to win the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the first time.

Lauren Winfield-Hill made 65 off 87 balls as they posted 215-9 despite a mini-slump from 114-1 to 119-5.

Vipers made a slow start in reply but Maia Bouchier (48) put on 81 with Georgia Adams for the third wicket.

Skipper Adams made 70 but was out in the 48th over and Vipers fell short on 213-9 as Diamonds won by two runs.

Vipers - who beat Diamonds in the 2020 and 2021 finals - needed 13 off the last over and six to win or four to force a super-over from the final ball, bowled by Katie Levick (2-44), but Charlotte Taylor could only manage two.

It was a great moment for Diamonds, who had played in three previous finals in the Trophy and 20-over Charlotte Edwards Cup, and lost them all.

And it meant double disappointment for all-rounder Charlie Dean, who bowled tidily for Vipers and hit 32 off 43 balls, on the same ground where she was the victim of a match-ending Mankad run-out a day earlier as England lost to India.

• Relive Diamonds' victory over Southern Vipers

Adams put Diamonds in after winning the toss but Winfield-Hill and Linsey Smith opened up with a stand of 83 before the latter, on 27, chipped a return catch to Taylor.

There was a moment of levity when Dean, brought on as first change, threatened to Mankad Smith, but did not go through with it.

After her Mankad moment for England, Charlie Dean tried to inject some humour by threatening to do it herself

Winfield-Hill, the leading run scorer in the competition, breezed past 50, but Hollie Armitage and Sterre Kalis were bowled by successive balls from Paige Scholfield, and Phoebe Turner was lbw to Taylor.

When Winfield-Hall was run out, answering Bess Heath's call for a quick single, Diamonds had lost four wickets for five runs in the space of 15 balls.

But Heath (44) kept her composure and found a reliable partner in Leah Dobson (34 not out) as they added 85 in 17 overs to push the total beyond 200.

Adams, like Scholfield earlier in the innings, was on a hat-trick in the final over after dismissing Leigh Kasperek and Lizzie Scott, but Emma Marlow prevented the treble before being run out off the last ball of the innings.

Georgia Adams dismissed Bess Heath in the 46th over, lbw attempting a ramp shot

Vipers had seven players in their side who had managed a half-century in the 2022 competition but they made a sluggish start in the face of tight bowling by Smith and teenager Scott - the only seamer in the Diamonds XI - and were 18-2 after 10 overs.

Smith's first six-over spell cost just eight runs, including the wicket of Ella McCaughan, while Scott bowled Georgia Elwiss with a perfect inswinger, and the first boundary did not arrive until the 14th over.

Bouchier and Adams, though, steadied the innings and took the total to 98 before the former was caught at short mid-wicket off Diamonds captain Armitage, whose team beat Vipers by four wickets in a group game eight days earlier, when Winfield-Hill hit an unbeaten 125.

Turning the ball away from the right-handers, Armitage and Levick packed the off-side field and challenged Vipers - who won the Charlotte Edwards Cup in June - to try and hit the ball through or over the ring.

Dean provided the innings with some much-needed impetus but then pulled Kasperek to Heath at mid-wicket, and when Winfield-Hill stumped Adams off Levick, to go with two earlier catches standing up to the stumps, Vipers were 196-6 with two overs to go.

Scholfield was bowled by Smith in the penultimate over and although Bell square cut a boundary in the last, both she and Chloe Hill were out as Diamonds emerged victorious.

Skipper Hollie Armitage lifts the trophy for Northern Diamonds

'I've fallen in love with the game again' - reaction

Diamonds wicketkeeper-batter Lauren Winfield-Hill:

"I'm chuffed to bits. We've come close against the Vipers a few times now and we've got a few wounds against them.

"We're all captain hindsight, aren't we, but I think potentially they could have looked to accelerate a bit earlier, but it felt like one of those wickets where as soon as you tried to do that you were vulnerable.

"It's no secret I found the last winter hard, being dropped from England hard, and I was in a bad place in cricket, away from cricket, everything. I could barely function as a human being.

"To be able to turn it around, fall in love with the game again and take pressure off myself has been the most enjoyable bit. I've loved every game and it's reflected in the way I've performed."

Vipers captain Georgia Adams told BBC Radio Solent:

"We're absolutely gutted not to get over the line, but I think they were the better side.

"We needed more partnerships with the bat and just look to rotate the strike a bit more. We left ourselves too much to do at the end.

"Their spinners don't tend to turn the ball but they bowled well and kept coming at us and they showed a little bit more fight there at the end.

"We've had three brilliant finals against these guys. They've got loads of depth so well, so it's not to be but we can still hold our heads high.

"It feels like a lifetime ago but we did win the Charlotte Edwards Cup so we have got a trophy in the cabinet this season."