BATTER Danni Wyatt praised the way Southern Vipers "held our nerve" to start their Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy defence with a victory.

The contest at Portland Road was heavily affected by rain showers. Central Sparks batted first, posting a total of 163 for seven off 36 overs.

Eventually, Vipers were set a target of 70 for victory off the 10 remaining overs available, something they reached with two balls to spare to win by seven wickets on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

"Those on-off days are never fun but we are really chuffed to have come through and won in the end," said Wyatt, who top scored for the visitors with 36 off 24 balls.

"Credit to our bowlers, I thought they bowled exceptionally well.

"After the first rain break we came out and really bowled to our potential and bowled straight and it paid off.

"In that last little session where we needed seven an over, we just said 'let's play normal cricket shots for the first few overs' and luckily a few boundaries came as well.

"In that situation, if you get a couple of dot balls, it can get a bit nervy but we held our nerve really well."

Sparks head coach Lloyd Tennant added: "We were on the wrong side of the Duckworth-Lewis, but it was the rain breaks that kept damaging us when we were batting.

"It was a good pitch but still you need to get in on it and every time it looked like we were going to build a partnership and get going there was another rain break and off we'd come again.

"Once we got into the second innings and it started to rain again we knew we would be under the pump but it was a great effort from our bowlers to take it so close.

"Even in the last over we were still fighting."

Vipers return to action against the South East Stars at Hove on Saturday (10.30am).