Today we saw some terrific cricket on display on the Gillespie Astro. We fielded first and Captain Clara opened with an excellent over, limiting Strathallan to -4, thanks to only conceding one run and Helena’s dead-eye accuracy with her first of two run outs on the day. Florence was equally tidy with her bowling (4 runs from 12 balls) and Alice took 3 wickets in her two overs, including a terrific caught and bowled! I was also very impressed with our left hander, Lily who bowled 8 dot balls from 12 deliveries. Some of their batters were very strong and scored a few boundaries in the final 4 overs, setting us a chase of 101 runs. It could have been a lot worse had it not been for Zinnia and Livia’s top fielding, throwing themselves in the way of very ball that came near them.
After tea we our opening batters, Isabelle and Agustina scored a fabulous 42 partnership from their 4 overs, hitting 8 boundaries. Helena and Isla were in next and kept the scoreboard ticking over with an impressive 29. After 8 overs we were only 30 runs short of the total and so decided to take a leaf out of the U9 playbook on the other pitch and remove boundaries altogether, forcing our girls to run everything. This allowed them to practice their running between the wickets – a couple need to remember to ground their bat over the line – but it made for a much more enjoyable game and was a great way to work on key skills.
Thandie and Zinnia faced probably the pick of their bowlers and although didn’t score as many runs, they didn’t concede a wicket with some well-played defensive shots. After the 20 overs, we had reached 345, only losing 3 wickets. Player of the match as voted by the opposition was Livia for her outstanding all-round play but special mention to Alexandra who batted and ran between the wickets very well, calling clearly. Well played girls – you are all improving every day and learning more and more about the game. Things to continue to work on:
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