Under 15 Girls – Margaret Peden Shield
Manly-Warringah v North Shore
Venue: Mike Pawley Oval
North Shore: 9/161 (Lara Hughes 3/23, Darcey Whiteley 2/28, Isabella Zovi 2/16)
TIED
Manly-Warringah: All Out 161 (Isabella Zovi 48, Charlotte Croll 15, Jaime Loh 14, Hannah Moss 13)
Sunday 30th January, what an amazing day of sport and entertainment! Two amazing Women’s cricket matches; the first Peden match of the season, the final day of the Women’s Ashes Test and then the evenings Men’s Australian Open final.
The weather looked a lot better than previous weeks, the covers were removed easily without puddles! and the pitch was dry and hard.
Manly lost the toss and were asked to field, Darcey and Lara shared the new cherry and produced an amazing first 6 overs, North Shore were 4 down for 19, a good toss to lose!! The parents were thinking this could be a short game, but just as Medvedev found, it was not to be!! Over the next 2 hours North Shore batted very well and took the game to 5 sets!
Many overs later Darcey came back for her second spell and combined with Jaime to finally break the North Shore partnership. 10 overs later Saoirse gave our girls a reason to cheer as the Umpire slowly raised his finger on an LBW appeal to put an end to the half century for their number 4 batter. Then Isabella bowled fast and cleaned up the tail smashing the stumps twice in 2 balls to the delight of the Manly players and spectators!! The stumps were smashed again, as Hannah scored a direct hit to end the innings.
Manly gave all 11 players a bowling opportunity, but the strict leg-side wides rule caused Sundries to top score for North Shore, a coach killer! Bowl ‘down the channel’ will be heard many times again!
During the innings break plenty of water was drunk and sprayed, thanks little Sean. It was hot out there! Manly had a competitive target to chase 161 from 40 overs, Jaime had the run rate calculated to 3 decimal places in her head, others used their phones to get to 4 an over.
Our opening pair, who have looked solid in the trial games, didn’t disappoint, batting confidently with 41 runs on the board in 7 overs, the runs were flowing, nearly 6 per over! (5.857 for Jaime!), this should be easy!
However, as we know, cricket can change very quickly, in the 8th Charlotte heard the horrible sound of leather on timber and in the very next over Hannah spooned a simple catch to cover. But no worries our 3, 4 and 5 also batted well in trial games, we can do this!
And indeed Sophie and Isabella continued the confident batting, defending the good balls and hitting the bad for 2’s and 4’s by the 18th they had the score at nearly 90, well above the required run rate. When Sophie was given out LBW, Jaime came in and continued the solid batting. Isabella was batting brilliantly, watchful when needed, aggressive when appropriate, getting herself to 48 and the team to 140 by the 30th over. 22 to win from 10 overs – 7 wickets in hand. Easy!
But just as in the Women’s Ashes, after Australia were 337 and England 4 -79, a win looked a certainty – things change in cricket and by the last few overs of the final day all results were possible for the Ashes, so it was for our girls!!
North Shore deployed their best bowlers – they bowled at the stumps, full and straight, it got results. Bowled, Bowled, LBW, Bowled, Bowled, for not many runs this was going down to the wire – Sophia and Daisy added 10 valuable runs before Sophia was caught and bowled.
Last over – 2 runs to win – 1 wicket remaining, Fordy’s hair got greyer, Big Shawn’s nails shorter, Jaime couldn’t look!
Daisy gets a single, scores level – 3 balls left, will there be another wide, 30 already? can we get one more run? North Shore bowled another at the stumps, full and straight – CRASH went the Stumps – MATCH TIED
Congratulations to the North Shore girls for such an entertaining game, a match that will be remembered longer than most!
Next week away to Bankstown-Camden, let’s try for a straight sets win and make it easier for the coaches and parents!
