A hot day in North Derbyshire saw us at Cutthorpe CC to take on Yorkshire U11s in a 30 overs a side game.
Captain Ruby Swan won the toss again and chose to bat. After a tricky start losing a couple of early wickets, HanaMae Carr steadied the innings, first with Penny Tanner and then with Ruby Swan who came into bat hitting her first ball for a glorious extra-cover drive for 4. Both Ruby and HanaMae got to 29 runs before being bowled in quick succession, along with Flo Taylor in the 15th over. Ava Ford and Anika Verma then took advantage of the opposition flagging in the hot sunshine and played skillfully for a partnership of 58. After Anika was run-out for 22, Darcy Wall joined Ava and the two of them added another great partnership of 62 to give the team a very creditable score of 219/7 after 30 overs. Ava finished on an excellent unbeaten 59 off 52 balls including 9 fours.
After the lunch break, the Yorkshire team took to the field to begin their run chase. In a perfect start for Derbyshire, HanaMae bowled the Yorkshire opening bat first ball. Anika Verma took 2 wickets in her second over, both bowled. Tight bowling from Teagan Gill and Phoebe Blurton kept the pressure on. A fantastic piece of fielding from Flo Taylor saw her hit one stump to achieve a runout for the 4th wicket to fall. Darcy Wall then took her first wicket for Derbyshire in the 12th over. There was more exciting fielding in the 15th over, with Hannah Reast taking a catch at slip off the bowling of Poppy Ward. The very next ball Hannah ran out the non-striker at the batter’s end as the new batter attempted to get off the mark. Ruby Swan came on to bowl and took a wicket with her first ball to leave Yorkshire 8 wickets down. Continuing the pattern of just 2 overs per bowler, Ava Ford came on at the other end and bowled a wicket maiden. The drama continued in Ava’s final over as the rain started to fall with Derbyshire needing one wicket to win. She responded to the great and excited encouragement from her teammates by bowling the Yorkshire number 11, with the score on 60. We agreed that the Yorkshire number 12 could also have a bat, so the game continued for another 3 balls before a running mix-up resulted in Penny Tanner running her out.
This was another excellent win for the team. Coaches Georgie and Sonja were particularly impressed with the running between the wickets which squeezed out every possible run, and the strong hitting shown during the batting innings, the team scoring 22 boundaries between them. The fielding performance was equally impressive with 10 bowlers used and only 9 wides conceded in 20 overs. Kyrie-Anna Shelton and Penny Tanner shared the wicket-keeping, both doing an excellent job and only conceding 5 byes between them. Good energy levels were maintained throughout, admittedly helped by the weather clouding over (as planned!) and a steady fall of wickets. Great all-round performance again girls!
