Central Sparks 183 for 4 (E Jones 73, A Jones 40) beat Southern Vipers 180 (McCaughan 59, Burns 5-36, Davis 3-19) by six wickets

The Vipers bowlers could simply not keep up with the Joneses and their fielding flagged too as the result became inevitable in the warm afternoon sunshine.

By the time Eve Jones was out, to the last ball of the 38th over, chipping a return catch to Elwiss, Sparks were just 12 runs short of victory. The captain had led from the front, facing 124 balls and hitting seven fours.

The Vipers' innings of 180 from 47.2 overs was a disappointment and represented a considerable comeback from Sparks who looked likely to be on the receiving end of a total of well over 200.

She lost opening partner Maia Boucher in the third over and then Australian debutant Nicole Faltum ramped Issy Wong straight to third man. But when Vipers were 96 for two in the 25th they looked confident of setting a more robust total.

They were undone, mostly, by the Australian Burns, an exciting recruit for this season, who will be available until the end of July. Burns' off-spin shone as she returned figures of 5 for 36 from her 10 overs, including the important wicket of McCaughan, who was caught sweeping at short fine-leg.

The middle-order collapse saw Vipers lose six wickets for 42 runs with captain and key batter Georgia Adams making the second-best score of 29.