Crushing the Whimple

It was a lovely day for cricket at a lovely ground in the Devon countryside.

Megan was elected captain today with Lily as vice captain.

We lost the toss and were put into bat.

We were three balls in when an innocent question from our scorer led to an embarrassing realisation that perhaps we had not paid enough attention to the myriad rules that we were sent before the game. The Taverners is a straight you’re out you’re out T-20 competition as opposed to the normal pairs that we usually play - a sackable offence from an admin point of view! Fortunately the opposition were happy to play local rules and we went with a pairs game. We do need to be aware both as coaches and players that in later rounds if you lose your wicket your time at the crease is over.

Lily and Harper opened the batting for us batting against the bowling of Harriet and Olivia. A good first over was followed by a wobble in the second as we lost 2 wickets to the bowling of Olivia. The girls recovered in the following overs to get the scores back past the 200 mark. Finishing their spell on 205.

Next in were Lulu and Megan Clark – I thought Lulu played the ball really well into space – running 2s from her shots on three occasions. Megan also played some good shots but not quite matching the distance of Lulu. They ran really well both when they hit the ball but also when they had been bowled no balls. At the end of their spell the scores had gone on to 228.

Next in were Katie and Jas. Katie had the bulk of the strike in this partnership facing all bar 6 balls. She looked really confident with the bat and managed 4 fours in her top-scoring total of 22 – she was bowled at the very end of her innings to a straight ball. Jas also managed to collect a 4 in her innings. It was a large boundary today and the girls did well to reach it. Jas and Katie ran really well with some great clear calling that could be heard from the boundary. There were 2’s and 3’s in amongst the non-boundary scores. At the end of the girl’s spell we were on 257.

Our final pair were Megan Driskel and Lola. The strike was shared fairly evenly between them both. Megan was bowled in her first over and fell to 2 slightly over optimistic\good fielding run attempts in her innings – but did play some lovely other shots. Lola looked really confident in her batting striking the ball cleanly and hard and picking up several 2’s in her haul. At the end of this pair our innings score closed on 265.

We lost six wickets overall – it’s a little difficult to know if this would have had too much of an impact on our score if we had been playing the game as the rules indicated. Katie’s 22 would have been banked before she was bowled and our other top scorers Jas (10), Lola (10) and Lulu (8) all carried their bat. I think therefore the impact would have been minimal.

I was relatively confident of the outcome at the start of their innings as they had looked a little inexperienced during their bowling and I knew we had bowlers that would cause them trouble.

Our opening 4 bowlers were Lily, Harper, Megan C and Katie. We started the innings with a runout on the second ball - a great direct hit from Harper from some distance out - but from this point on with these batters I thought the contest was more even. The batters worked the ball well into space and were constantly looking for quick runs which was putting our fielders under pressure. At the end of Katie’s first over (the last for the pair) we managed to get a second run out (I’m afraid I failed to record who threw this – but well done!) which pegged them back a little. Despite the 2 wickets the opening pair managed to put on 218. A really good effort considering the lack of boundaries – only 4 of those were from extras – the rest down to good quick running.

Next in were Olivia and Holly and they faced Jas, Lola, Megan D and Lily in their 4 overs. They were not quite as experienced as the opening pair – but did manage to eke out regular runs in the first 2 overs. Their third over was a bit of a calamity for them. First off there was a fantastic run out – Lily worked well to get onto a short hit ball – picking it up cleanly and throwing crisply to Lulu behind the stumps – Lulu expertly swung gloves and ball against the wicket taking off the bails and claiming the wicket – great cricket from both of you Lily and Lulu. Megan then finished the over with 2 wickets.

Lily bowled the last over to the pair – they struggled to get bat on ball – but did manage a couple of byes. Lily usually delivers wickets when we play and today was no different - she got her reward off her fourth ball of her second over.

The score had dropped to 205 during this pair’s efforts.

Evie and Lydia were next up – they faced Harper, Megan C, Katie & Jas. Some good tight bowling meant that runs were hard to come by and Katie reacted quickly to a rising shot to take a bowl-catch (*Helen I told you I would use your phrase at some point this season!) or caught and bowled in non Helen speak. They were struggling to get runs now only managing the odd single. This pair managed to get the score back up to 218.

The final pair in were Imogen and Issy. They were probably the most inexperienced pair and struggled throughout to move the ball any distance but did play some stout defensive shots. This pair delivered Maidens for Lily, Lola, and Megan D – they only scored 1 run in their 4 overs off the last ball of the game.
Lulu - took a hit on the knee part way through her wicket keeping - but after a brief stoppage was able to continue.

From my sedentary position on the boundary I saw some good movement in the field - there was lots of good backing up when fielders were throwing back to the stumps. I especially noted this from Katie and Lily but I think all the girls were doing it to some extent. There is scope for us to improve – some of our stops in the field were a little less than perfect – once we had hold of the ball our throws back though were generally very good.

The opposition managed to get to 218 from their 16 overs which puts us through to the next round.

The next round of the competition is scheduled on Sunday 13th June and we should be at home - (I think England play their first fixure of Euro 2020 that day so we will need to wrap that one up quickly!) against one of Plymouth, Paignton, Ipplepen or Exeter. It would be good to practice some you’re out you’re out cricket before then.

I will add a fixture to pitchero and if you could update your availability for that day that would be great.

Thanks to all the Parents for taking time out of their Bank Holiday Mondays – and indeed in some cases Holidays - to get their girls to Whimple to play.

Thanks to Steven for turning up on time (unlike the scorer) and most of all well done to the girls.

Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday and half terms.