Bishop’s Stortford U15 girls went on the road to Cockenach, the new pretenders to the throne. Cockenach had a contingent of county players including a member of the Sunrisers academy, but Stortford put out a close to full strength side for the first time this year, including county players of our own and even a Transvaal U19 level player. The game was on! Stortford lost the toss and were happy to bat first on a flat track, fast outfield and beautiful country house setting in the Herts/Cams border.
Lexi and Suzy (fresh from runs for the county) opened and were made to work hard for runs. They got to 33 from the first 5 overs, for the loss of Lexi unfortunately run out as we tried to run more aggressively. Saskia then came to the crease and managed to keep the run rate over 6 an over, getting to 66 at 10 overs. Saskia was eventually out for 24, bringing in Eva who maintained the run rate, getting us to 105 after 15 overs. Eva then retired on 26, and Suzy was bowled for 18, and Zoe and Catherine finished the innings getting us to 134. Zoe bravely fought through a back injury that hampered her running. Was that enough? It felt a little below par, but if we bowled and fielded well, we had a strong chance.
Catherine and Marie opened the bowling and quickly came under fire with the Cockenach Sunrisers player (Florence) quickly getting to 27 to retire and getting them to 44 of the first 5 overs. With her out, the run rate slowed down, but they progressed steadily to 78 from 10. Critically, however, the wickets began to fall with the loss of 3 in 3 overs. Suddenly, Cockenach changed strategy and begun to run between the wickets with a new sense of urgency. To match this urgency the Stortford fielding found a new energy; despite the complexity of the 6 ball grace rule (that doesn’t allow more than one run out in the 6 balls per batter), Stortford executed 7 run outs (Eva, Suzy, Zoe, Catherine, Lexi, and Emily) leaving Cockenach needing 8 to win from the final over and bringing retired Florence back to the crease in a last wicket stand. If ever fielding drills and mental toughness was to be tested this was it.
Saskia took responsibility for bowling the final over and Eva, captaining the group, tried to keep Florence off strike, to force the more junior batter to face. The first ball beat the bat and was taken cleanly by Alice, but they choose to run to get their key player on strike, despite the high risk. Alice kept her cool and won the race to break the stumps and win the game, securing the 7th team run out.
Reviewing the bowling, key bowlers were Emily and Lexi only going for 7 and 10 respectively off their three overs and creating pressure for Cockenach to score. Saskia’s bowling had the best figures (3-13) and combined with her 24 runs and 2 catches earnt her player of the match.
The key lesson learnt was that when facing good opposition, combined fielding excellence can be the push towards the finish line.