After a successful spring season before the Christmas break - with our U11 Girls team reaching the final, but unfortunately not being able to play due to extreme heat on the day - we welcomed some new players and split into two even teams for the summer competition.
u11 Girls Blue Match Report: Megan Maurice
Round 4: Summer Hill Blue 100 def Marrickville 99
The SHCC Blue team started the new season with a bye, followed by a narrow loss and then bounced back with a win against Ashfield and were finding their rhythm when they came up against Marrickville at Hammond Park on Saturday.
Captain Tilly lost the bat flip, but the team were pleased that Marrickville chose to bowl, as they would have chosen to bat if they had won. Openers Pia and Shrishti set a strong platform from the beginning. As the more experienced of the pair, Pia took the lead in making strong, loud calls and running hard between wickets. In just her third game of cricket, Shrishti played like someone with much more experience, striking the ball well and responding to calls.
Captain Tilly came in at number three after Pia retired and immediately sent shockwaves through Marrickville with her super speed between wickets. She was soon joined by Phoebe - with whom she has shared many strong partnerships - and the two of them scored 10 runs each, increasing the strike rate very quickly. Mia was in next and she picked up where the others left off, hitting the ball cleanly and always being ready to run. Rosie finished off the innings in style, scoring 16 runs including a sensational four, pulled through midwicket, that flew to the boundary. The team finished with 96 runs and plenty of confidence going into their bowling innings.
The bowling performance was tight right from the start. Marrickville defended their wicket very well, but the SHCC bowlers kept on testing them, giving away very few extras and making the batters work for every run they scored. Mia was bowling incredibly accurately - her two overs before she took over wicket keeping after drinks break were both maidens and the ball went very close to hitting the stumps a number of times. She was also fantastic when she went into keeper, stopping every ball that came her way.
Captain Tilly came on to show Marrickville that the only thing faster than her running between the wickets is her bowling, sending down a very tight four overs with plenty of heat on them. Rosie backed up her sensational batting innings with a great bowling performance, demonstrating she is a true all-rounder, and she was unlucky to miss out on a wicket, as many of her deliveries came close to taking out the stumps. Shrishti's bowling has come on so quickly since only learning to bowl a few short weeks ago - after taking her first wicket the previous week, she came very close to getting her second when one of her deliveries caught the edge of the bat, but unfortunately sailed just wide of the keeper.
Pia played a great 10 overs in wicket keeper, putting her body on the line to stop the ball multiple times. When she bowled her two overs, she showed off her improving accuracy and her second over particularly was so tight under pressure of Marrickville's growing confidence as they got closer to SHCC's score.
But the story of the day belonged to Phoebe. She took the team's only wicket, which moved SHCC's total score up to 100. All four of her overs were excellent, but it was her final over - the final over of the day - that will be remembered for a long time. Marrickville had taken six wickets in their bowling innings, which gave them 24 bonus runs to start their innings and they were creeping up on SHCC's total, even with a very tight bowling performance. When Phoebe came on to bowl the final over, Marrickville had 98 runs. They needed three runs to win the game or two to tie it. Phoebe calmly bowled an over of near perfect line and length, conceding only one run to seal the win for her team.
It was a fantastic game from this group of young players, who are improving and developing with every game they play. Everyone is looking forward to the big game this weekend - SHCC Blue v SHCC Gold, which will be a lot of fun and is sure to be played in the very best spirit. If you are in the area, pop down to Hammond Park at 2pm to see these young women show off their skills and have the most fun doing it!