Match report by Mark Austin
Yesterday our Women’s Indoor team came up against a strong, but very young (average age 14), Moreton side full of County youth.
We were asked to bowl 1st. What is clear from the way they play is Moreton have played this format before. They scored throughout off most balls, placing the ball off the bat to hit at least one wall and running for 2’s and 3’s. With a solid platform their final pair, the highest scorers of the day, smashed 62 off their 4 overs which probably took the game from us. Katie, Zoe and Chelsea took a wicket each.
In reply we made a valiant effort but the mountain was just too high. Karen Cross and Elaine Huckson opened and tried to keep the scoreboard ticking over but were unable to beat some good fielding on a couple of occasions. Second up, Zoe Pugh and Bethany Bidwell matched the oppo’s middle pair with a couple of maximums plus two more great drives to the back wall for 4. However, a couple of good catches including one that fortuitously hit the net on the side wall and dropped into their player’s hand put paid to any thoughts of a comeback. Our final pair, Katie Cross and Chelsea Preedy, continued the theme of hitting the back wall (2 more 6’s and a 4) and outscored all bar their final pair but, alas, needing 100 off 4 overs was always going to be a huge ask. We scored 121 and lost by 58 runs. The statto in me would like to highlight we led the back wall scores on the day which is encouraging to see.
Moreton are, no doubt, the best team in this league but our Ladies were not phased against them and, as I said and we’ve proved before, if Moreton had a slightly off day and we’d had some luck with catches for and against we’d have won that. Also, I saw nothing from any other team today to worry them, all of these teams are beatable including Moreton so we can still win this. We have two weeks off now, due to our spare week and exams at the venue. Next up are All Stars on 11th December.
Finally thanks to Beth for playing 2 games yesterday.