Too Strong

As a result of Rugby and Weather earlier in the season we were having to play a game out of sequence on a school day.

Staplegrove were a young team who are finding their way in the league and the difference in confidence and match nous was clear. They look like they are a team that will come good with more match experience.

Emily Cameron (I kept using her surname despite the absence of the other Emily) was our captain, she lost the toss and we were put in to bat.

Erin and Ami opened. They were both fairly solid although I think the pressure of opening weighed on them both and impacted their natural game a little. They both struggled to move the ball any distance. The third over bowled by Alex was tricky for us – a double wicket maiden with both Ami and Erin bowled. We need to keep our eye on the ball all the time and play a nice straight bat/shot to the straight balls.
At the end of this pair we had moved on to 202.

Gemma and Tass were next in – again we seemed to find runs hard to come by picking off singles here and there. Gemma did manage to get a nice 4 in her second over but everything else was 1s, 2s or wides. The bowling didn’t help; the last 2 overs were comprised of 8 wides – difficult to score many runs off those. We did have a fairly calamitous run out in this period – Staplegrove had a close in fielder behind the wicket keeper and we didn’t seem to spot this – the run was called for but the fielder was on it and got the ball in quickly. It’s possible that if the bat was run in along the ground the run might have been made but it wasn’t and the umpires finger was raised.

At the end of this pair we had moved on to 221.

Emily and Lucy were next up. We again took a a little while to get going 1 run and a bye off the first over; the second was a mix of singles, a wide, a bye and a wicket meaning a -1 for the over.

We then picked up a little 4 singles off the next over and then Lucy let fly with 2 great 4’s and a 2 in the last.

After this pair the score had moved on to 241. Lucy had picked up a good 12 runs finishing second top scorer.

Our last pair in were Lily and Lola – as they went in I was a little concerned that our score was probably below par. Lily was in determined mood though and set about the bowlers from the off scoring a 4 from her first ball. Lily hogged the strike throughout the innings but her fluency meant this did not impact our score in a bad way. Lola did contribute well – both in her determined running but also every ball she faced she scored off picking up 10 runs – including a 4 and a well run 3 off the 5 balls she could hit – the sixth was a wide.

Lily picked up 29 runs finishing top scorer - including several 4s. There were occasions when the girls really had to watch and work the ball as the deliveries were not always of the best quality – but they watched them closely and worked them away well.

At the end of this pair the score had moved on to 290.

Ami and Gemma shared the wicket keeping duties. Ami covering the first 4 overs and Gemma the last 4. Both did well in a position that they do not play often.

As we went in to bowl I was confident that this score would be more than enough – our bowling attack is fast and largely accurate and the experienced teams this season have struggled to score many runs – and the inexperienced team today also struggled.

Bowling highlights included only 8 wides – quite possibly our lowest wides total this year.

Lola was involved in 3 runouts with quick fielding and good throws back to Ami (2 occasions) and 1 direct hit. Emily also was quick in the field getting the ball back to Ami smartly for Ami to then whip away the bails for another run out.

Ami, having shed the wicket keeping garb then had a great double wicket maiden over – taking a bowled wicket on her second ball and a caught and bowled on her 5th. She has lengthened her run up and I think this has helped with the speed of her delivery – whilst still maintaining her accuracy – what was also noticeable and good to see was the following through down the wicket – and it was this following through that contributed to the caught and bowled she took. Because she had carried on down the wicket she was in the perfect place to take the ball that spooned up off the bat as the batters bottom hand kept on coming through.

Tass was the only other bowler to take a wicket with a nice ball raking across the top of the stumps and knocking off the bails.

Everyone elses figures are spattered with dot balls as the batsmen struggled to move the ball against the pace and accuracy of our bowling.

Emily was vocal in encouraging the team to remember to walk in when the team were fielding which was good to hear.

It was a good performance against a team that have struggled this year. We have had and will have harder games but you still have to do the basics in these games and we did that today.

We largely ran well – although we did have a run out and there were a couple of dodgy other calls – it’s good to put the fielding team under pressure – but we need to be sure we’re not giving away 6 runs in the process.

Our fielding was good – lively and generally sure of ourselves with the ball.

With the batting we were a little slow to put runs on the board this is partly down to the balls not necessarily being in the right place to be moved around - but we did eventually post a good score.

A good performance girls and one which keeps us in contention at the top of the league.

Thanks to Simon for umpiring and everyone who helped to clear up at the end.

Next up we have Bishops Hull at home on Sunday – I will publish the team for that shortly – I am still trying to balance out appearances across the squad so if you have already played in a lot of matches you may miss out.

The following Sunday (4th) we have the Taunton Deane Pumas – they are currently top of the league so this is a critical game and will be a tough match – it will be good to be able to pick from our full squad for this game. I think there may be some players with pathway commitment on this day – I understand this is a training day and not a match – the somerset coaches have previously indicated that they would rather you got match experience if available so if you are on the pathway and happy to be picked for this game can you adjust your status accordingly.

Thanks all - see you on sunday if picked or next week at training.