SPIRITS are nice and high in the Victorian camp at the moment after they defeated New South Wales (NSW) for the second time in the space of a week yesterday. After Victoria posted 7/284, NSW was bowled out for only 224.

A 67-run opening partnership and a 98 run third wicket partnership is what really set things up for the Victorians. Nicole Faltum and Sophie Molineux got things going, before Sophie Reid and Tess Flintoff kept it rolling.

The scoring slowed a bit as the innings progressed, but the home side was still able to put together an impressive tally. The Victorians were however helped by some poor bowling again from the Breakers, with 12 wides conceded by the visitors in a total extras tally of 18.

Reid led the way for Victoria with 65, while Molineux made 62 and Flintoff, 56.

Meanwhile for NSW, Sammy-Jo Johnson was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, while Maitlin Brown picked up two and Saskia Horley and Stella Campbell picked up one each.

The start to the Breakers’ chase could not have gone much worse. They lost their first wicket with only five runs on the board, and then suddenly found themselves at 4/11 just under two overs later.

Then, a 150-run partnership between Georgia Adams and Saskia Horley breathed some life back into the innings.

However, once Adams and then Brown fell, things really started to fall apart. They lost their last four wickets for nine runs to be all bowled out on the penultimate ball of the 46th over. Things would have been even worse for the Breakers if not from some bad bowling from the Victorians. The Vics conceded 16 wides in a total extras tally of 25.

Unsurprisingly Adams and Horley were the stars with the bat for the Breakers, making 70 and 89 respectively.

For the Vics it was Molineux who was the absolute star with ball in hand. Only just recently back from injury, she took six wickets to show she really truly was back to her best. Sophie Day also picked up two wickets.