Kate Cross' injury overshadowed Sunrisers Leeds' winning start to the women's Hundred at The Oval, as she landed heavily on her left shoulder while making a stop in the field.
Cross made a tumbling stop while diving to her left at mid-off to prevent a Hollie Armitage boundary off Jess Jonassen's bowling, and immediately clutched her left shoulder. She received treatment from the Sunrisers physio and was replaced by a substitute fielder for the rest of the innings. She spent most of their successful run chase icing her shoulder in the dugout.
Cricinfo has learned that she did not dislocate the shoulder but Sunrisers are waiting to learn the extent of the injury, which will only become clear after an MRI scan in the next 24 hours. Cross is the leader of Sunrisers' attack and it would be a major blow to their hopes of retaining the title they won - as Northern Superchargers - if she is ruled out of the tournament.
"I think it is nasty," Adi Birrell, Sunrisers' coach, said. "We're not sure. We'll have to scan. We're really hoping she's OK, because we think she's very good… We won't make any decisions on anything [until we need to] and we really hope she's OK."
Cross had earlier opened the bowling and taken two catches in the field, including an outstanding diving effort at long-on to remove Danni Wyatt-Hodge. It was a key moment in MI London's collapse from 56 for 0 after 36 balls to just 107 for 8. "We were really good, and put them under pressure with wickets," Birrell said.
Phoebe Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland added 57 for the third wicket as Sunrisers cruised home with 31 balls to spare, with captain Dani Gibson hitting the winning boundary. Gibson was a £190,000 signing in the auction in March - the highest salary of any English player - and said that she had not felt any price tag pressure in the days leading up to the tournament.
"It's not really been mentioned since I joined up with the team," she told Sky Sports. "It happened a long time ago, so I was able to get my head around it, figure out how I wanted to view it and play with the pressure.
"I had lots of really good conversations around what was affecting me with the price tag. At the end of the day, I'm a cricketer and I got picked for my skills, so I'm really trying to push that aside and just play cricket."
Lisa Keightley, MI London's coach, said that it had been "very tough" to prepare her team with only two training days before the start of the Hundred. "You've just got to roll with it, and that's franchise cricket," she said. "It's getting shorter and shorter, your window… You've got to run with it and try to do the best you can with what you've got."