HALF centuries from Niamh Holland and Chloe Skelton could not prevent Somerset from defeat at Warwickshire as Charis Pavely’s second century in four days powered the hosts to a 34-run win in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup at Edgbaston.

Pavely’s 127 (103 balls) lifted her side from 113 for five to 336 all out after an eighth-wicket partnership of 93 in 63 balls with Alexa Stonehouse (58 not out). Skelton also took four for 65 and Olivia Barnes three for 47.

While Pavely’s unbeaten 128 against Blaze at Trent Bridge the previous Wednesday came in a losing cause, this time Warwickshire closed out a win as Somerset replied valiantly with 302. Holland made 65 with Skelton adding 51, her first 50 in Somerset colours, but the visitors were left to rue the loss of captain Sophie Luff who was unable to bat due to a concussion injury sustained in the field.

After choosing to bat, Warwickshire moved smoothly to 40 from 40 balls before Skelton struck twice - Amu Surenkumar caught at mid-wicket and Meg Austin was lbw.

Alex Griffiths followed up with two wickets in four balls. Katie George pulled straight to mid-wicket and Davina Perrin, having struck nine fours in a fluent 45 (40), nicked one to wicketkeeper Katie Jones.

When Skelton ousted Chloe Brewer, who edged a lovely ball to Jones, Warwickshire were an uneasy 113 for five, However Pavely shared in three partnerships and smote 16 fours and two sixes before a smart leg-side stumping from Jones provided Skelton’s fourth wicket.

Somerset’s openers fell in the first seven overs, concussion sub Ruby Davies caught at mid-wicket off Stonehouse and Bex Odgers bowled by Taylor. Home skipper Georgia Davis then struck with her fourth ball when Anika Learoyd was lured down the track and stumped.

Holland and Jess Hazell (45) rebuilt the innings with a stand of 78 in 16 overs before Pavely continued her happy day by removing both lbw in the space of 13 balls.

Jones pulled Stonehouse for six but fell at mid-on two balls later and Somerset’s lower order had to find 98 from the last ten overs – a mission which proved just beyond them despite posting the visitor’s 6th highest ever List A score.

At the close of play, acting captain Skelton said: “With the ball I thought we were pretty tidy, but at times our fielding let us down a little bit. We were on top of them at one stage but in those moments we just need to keep our foot on the opponents’ throat and try and keep that momentum, but we didn’t do that.

“We really need to bowl teams out but we just hit a lull and, similar to last week, let them get away again and get too many, and then it becomes hard to chase.

“Niamh and Jess put on a really good partnership and started to swing the game in our favour a little bit, but then we just couldn’t follow that up. But looking at where we were last year, to get as close as we did is a pretty good effort.

The acting captain added: “Bouncing back is the hardest part of cricket but I don’t think we are far away from finding another winning result.”