Southern Brave 136 for 5 (Mandhana 43, Wyatt 31) beat Manchester Originals 127 for 8 (Lamb 57, Wellington 3-27) by nine runs
Amanda-Jade Wellington picked up three wickets as Southern Brave pulled off a heist to beat Manchester Originals by nine runs and maintain their 100 percent record.
Originals looked on course for victory while chasing 136 thanks to Emma Lamb's 57 - but Brave pulled things back in style. Wellington picked up Lizelle Lee, Deandra Dottin and Sophie Ecclestone before superb death bowling from Lauren Bell and Anya Shrubsole saw Brave take six wickets for just 24 runs in the last 22 deliveries.
Brave stay top of the table with three wins from three, while Originals face an uphill task to qualify with just one win from three.
Having been put in, Brave looked set for a gargantuan total after Smriti Mandhana - who hit 43 from 25 balls - and Danni Wyatt had put on 64 in the first 43 balls but were pegged back on a slowing, used pitch.
Mandhana was the main bludgeoner. She set the tone by pulling the second ball of the innings to the boundary before tucking into New Zealander Lea Tahuhu. She started by clearing the LED boards with a straight six before a guiding to third, flailing over cover and pulling for four successive boundaries.
She also took Ecclestone on, taking her for four over mid-off, six high over wide long on before skipping down the wicket and gliding the ball over the covers.
Kate Cross needed to haul in Mandhana and brought herself back on to bang the ball in short and find her picking out deep square leg.
That began a period of Originals dominance, which saw three-wickets fall in 21 balls, with just 17 runs coming. Wyatt was next to depart having entertained with 31 from 24 balls when Ecclestone bowled her.
Like her team, Ecclestone started expensively with 23 runs coming off her first 11 deliveries, but came back: her other nine balls only went for nine runs. She would also dismiss Sophia Dunkley, caught at long-on.
Hannah Jones was also key to the squeeze, pinning Tahlia McGrath leg-before, while ending with 1 for 18.
Dunkley, who survived a run out and a drop, and Maia Bouchier ticked along to put on 33, before Freya Kemp dropped her customary six to accelerate the end of the innings with 21 coming off the last 12 balls.
The powerplay was also profitable for Originals, with 40 coming to Brave's 42. Lee put Georgia Adams away through square before slog-sweeping a six, and continued by chipping Anya Shrubsole over midwicket. She perished after a 16-ball 25 when a leading edge off leggie Wellington fell in mid-off Mandhana's hands.
Wellington gained a second scalp when Dottin looped one back at her but the run-rate. Lamb's approach was low risk, low stress, taking singles, putting away a pair of poor Kemp deliveries but did pump Wellington down the ground for six in a rare moment of aggression.
Ami Campbell was caught at extra cover, Ecclestone skied Wellington to mid-off, Tahuhu was run out and Lamb drilled to cover - having reached a 39-ball half-century - as the runs dried up and the wheels began to fall off.
Nineteen were needed from the last 10-ball end but with Cross mishitting to mid-off and Cordelia Griffith run out at the non-striker's end, they ended up nine runs short.
