Women's XI
Matches
Sun 30 Jun 2019  ·  Surrey Womens Cricket League - Division 1
Shepperton CC - Womens 1st XI
100/4
96
Twickenham Cricket Club
Women's XI
Defeat for the ladies

Defeat for the ladies

Janet Bitmead1 Jul 2019 - 21:14
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Shepperton bowlers do the damage.

Ella writes: So, apparently, I am writing the match report this week for the away game ‘Shepperton v Twickenham’. The game began badly for me – nobly saving Moira from the title of ‘dick of the day’ by arriving 20 minutes after the start of the match due to my inability to read emails correctly. Thankfully, according to Sinead, I hadn’t missed much, just some dot balls. Twickenham were batting first.The innings started slowly it has to be said – with the openers facing out four maiden overs. Karen took an early knock to the elbow from a mistimed throw by a member of the opposition but soldiered on at the crease nonetheless.
The captain’s innings came to an end all too soon. Sinead walked back to the boundary to loud appeals for lbw. Spuggie went in and promptly returned following a great catch from the Shepperton side.
Rose and Karen began a sturdier partnership - though Rose unfortunately followed Sinead and Spuggie after some valiant efforts to break the opposition's tight field and get the score flowing.

We were at 20-3 after 11 overs, with Karen and Moira attempting to halt the Shepperton attack. It was looking bleak - Sinead's mutterings consisted of: 'well, we might limp to 50'. But out of nowhere came a boundary from Moira - a sign of better things to come perhaps? There was a murmur of positivity - the score accelerating thanks to some carefully placed shots from the demon duo at the crease. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be a long partnership. Moira was next to head back to the changing room.

However, amongst all these shenanigans, Karen had stayed strong and was beginning to build an innings for herself. Sarai headed in to join her and by the drinks break, they had together brought the score to 56 - defying Sinead's dismal predictions (clearly of course, a tactical way to bring down expectations and to help the batsmen to relax).

And as play continued, so did the partnership! But Sarai too fell victim to the opposition's thirst for Twickenham blood – tempted by a slower ball and bowled. Ruth joined Karen at the crease this time - just surviving a loud lbw appeal early on. Karen, our still stable-looking opener, took another knock from a powerfully bowled ball but shook it off once again to continue!

The two of them kept the flame alive for several overs before Karen made her walk back to the pavilion after a great innings. Ruth survived again - this time from a dropped catch. But there was no third survival. She too joined us at the boundary once more. Claire was quickly in and out which left Carol and Nerida at the crease - despite my embarrassing walk out to shouts of 'Ella, you're number 11 - turn up 20 minutes late and think you can waltz in at number 10.' Ahem naming no names *cough* Sinead. Now to count down the overs and hope to reach 100!

But it wasn't to be. Nerida was clean bowled after a brief but meaningful showing and I was in. Carol, distracted by a wide that wasn't called, was bowled at the other end. I finished on 1 not out. It was a quick but not entirely painless end at 96 all out.

A quick team talk from Sinead and we were out on the field with instructions to take early wickets. Sarai and Moira stepped up to open the bowling. Both had good spells– and Moira scooped two wickets with great catches taken by Spuggie and Ruth. Sinead stepped up to take the ball – assuring the umpire that her bandaged finger was not a disguise for ball tampering but thought to be broken!

Yet, the boundaries were falling thick and fast and the team needed a morale boost.
We turned to Moira – ‘Come on Shepperton, you can do this!’ she shouted – oops wrong team…

Spuggie took the other end. Her carefully placed missiles proved unhittable and forced a series of forward defensives to be played by the opposition who could not decide how or when to take a swing. Finally, she caught and bowled their opener just three runs before her 50. Motivated by her previous success, Ruth also took another excellent catch at deep mid-on from Sinead’s bowling.

However, it was not our day. In the thirteenth over, the game came to an end. It wasn’t our finest performance, but we headed home early after a drink in the shade. Let’s blame it on the heat!

Quote of the day goes to Sinead (as you can tell from this match report she was quite vocal during this game):
'But the good news is... oh no there isn't any' - real motivation from our captain (though marginally better than Charlotte's default head in hands)!

Match details

Match date

Sun 30 Jun 2019

Kickoff

13:00

Competition

Surrey Womens Cricket League - Division 1

League position

1
Twickenham CC - Womens 1st XI
2
Shepperton CC - Womens 1st XI
Team overview
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