Southern Vipers 115 for 5 (Adams 63, Villiers 3-15) beat Sunrisers 114 for 7 (Griffith 65, Smith 3-13) by five wickets

Southern Vipers romped towards finals day of the Charlotte Edwards Cup when they defeated Sunrisers by five wickets at the 1st Central County Ground, Hove.

Even without their England players they were far too strong for a Sunrisers side who have lost all seven of their matches in the competition. Chasing a modest target of 115 the Vipers got home with 5.1 overs to spare.

The Vipers went into their last group stage match with the comfortable knowledge that only heavy defeat would deny them a place at New Road, Worcester, where they will face Thunder.

The Vipers were well on their way to victory after just five overs, having reduced Sunrisers to 18 for 4 in that time.

Struggling Sunrisers had given the captaincy to the experienced South African Dane van Niekerk and given a debut to impressive medium pacer Esmae MacGregor, who took two wickets. But it wasn't enough.

From the second ball of the fifth over wicket-keeper Amara Carr was run out by Alice Monaghan, going for an optimistic second run and the innings looked in ruins.

But the Sunrisers can never be written off while Griffith is still there and once again the aggressive right-hander counter-attacked against a Vipers side who, as usual, rotated their bowlers at every opportunity. At the halfway stage of the innings - which had featured six Vipers bowlers - Sunrisers were 45 for 4.

Grifffith powered to her fifty from 44 balls when she pulled Elwiss to the midwicket boundary. But with the last ball of the over Elwiss yorked Florence Miller for 20 to end the 65-run partnership. And, in essence, the innings was over in the 18th over when Griffith, aiming for the leg side, was caught at extra-cover.