Loughborough Lightning 122 for 1 (Mathews 54*) beat Yorkshire Diamonds 121 for 6 (Gordon 2-27) by nine wickets
Loughborough Lightning secured their first win at the third attempt in this year's Kia Super League, hammering Yorkshire Diamonds by nine wickets with 40 balls to spare.
The Lightning, last year's runners-up, restricted the Diamonds, now without a win in two matches, to 121 for 6 thanks to a miserly bowling display dominated by pace off. Four wickets went to spin, including Sarah Glenn's excellent 1 for 17 from four overs of legspin.
Loughborough's West Indian Hayley Matthews, who opened the bowling and batting, then quickly helped put the game to bed with an unbeaten 54 off 39 balls. She shared partnerships of 44 in 5.1 overs for the first wicket with Amy Jones and 78 unbroken in 8.1 for the second with Sri Lankan Chamari Atapattu, who crashed 40 off 29.
Yorkshire were hurt by no one going on beyond 30, with Hollie Armitage, Alice Davidson-Richards and Indian overseas Jemimah Rodrigues all playing brightly.
Australian star Alyssa Healy was bowled for 5 by Matthews' offspin as she tried to make room to hit over the off side before only two overs in the innings went for double figures. Armitage cover drove two boundaries in as many balls off new-ball seamer Kathryn Bryce in the fifth over before captain Lauren Winfield was trapped lbw for 9.
England left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon had Rodrigues caught and bowled and bowled Armitage pushing forwards in the 10th and 12th over as the score slipped to 69 for 4. Davidson-Richards then hit three fours in four balls against Gordon, including two in two balls over mid-on's head, as Yorkshire moved to 85 for 4.
Gordon's figures of 2 for 27 from four overs were spoilt by conceding 12 off her last.
The hosts will be frustrated at having built a reasonable platform, only to fall away. Lightning captain Georgia Elwiss used eight bowlers, including herself. She bowled Cordelia Griffiths in Yorkshire's bid for acceleration late on.
But 19-year-old Glenn continued her impressive start to the competition and was the pick of the attack. In defeats to Western Storm and Southern Vipers last week, she claimed four wickets and added the late scalp of Davidson-Richards caught at deep midwicket.
Loughborough's reply started with Katie George conceding five wides down leg off the first ball. Jones then pulled a full toss from legspinner Helen Fenby for six into the healthily populated stands in the third over as the score moved to 24 without loss.
Jones miscued left-arm spinner Linsey Smith high to cover - 44 for 1 in the 12th - but Matthews maintained the momentum with some clean striking. In reaching 50 off 38 balls with seven fours, she also hit leggie Katie Levick for six over long-on.
Leg-side dominant Atapattu pulled Fenby for six over midwicket and punished her former side, whose fielding was below par and bowling was short, under a grey Headingley sky.
While Loughborough will look to build on this win in their next outing against Western Storm at Bristol on Tuesday, Yorkshire face arch-rivals Lancashire Thunder, winless after three games, at Liverpool on the same day. Both are 2.30pm starts.
