Including 8 wicket T20 victory v's Essex.......
The U17s got their season off to a good start yesterday with an ECB NatWest T20 day against Sussex and Essex at Garon Park in Southend. The first game was against Sussex who won the toss and elected to bowl first. This seemed to be a good decision after Herts got off to the worst possible start losing Dore, Banks and Tyson for golden ducks in the first 3 overs with Palmer-Brown’s taking a hat-trick split between her first and second over. However, Gemma Marriott and Catherine Cirkel did an excellent job at rebuilding the innings with the pair adding 66 before Gemma was stumped for 33 while trying to accelerate in the 16th over and Catherine bowled in the next also now going for the bigger shot. With two new batters at the crease, the run rate slowed a little but after the awful start, Herts were pretty happy with 84 for 9 after the 20 overs.
Sussex began their response steadily scoring only 16 from the first 8 overs due to the excellent bowling of Roxy Buckley (4-1-6-1) and Bex Tyson (4-0-10-0). However, after that, the remaining bowlers struggled to constrain the Sussex EPP player E.Wadey who hit the ball very cleanly on her way to a very well made 52 sealing the win by 7 wickets at the very end of the 16th over. The early wickets lost by Herts made all the difference in what probably would have been a very close game otherwise.
The second game, against Essex, was a much better affair for Herts. Again, the opposition won the toss but this time elected to bat first. Despite losing their first wicket to Buckley in the third over, the opener Beth Dodd hit a couple of good shots to take Essex to 18 runs in the 5th over before Buckley again did the damage in her 3rd over with a well taken catch by Mia Hobson behind the stumps to remove Dodd and then with the next ball removing the Essex number 4 and in her next over the number 5 as well. For any form of cricket, let alone a T20, Roxy’s figures of 4 overs, 2 maidens, 4 wickets for just 8 runs was exceptional.
The rest of the Essex innings was superbly constrained by tight bowling from the Herts girls as well as by some excellent fielding including two run outs and a couple of well taken catches. Essex finished all out for 85 on the first ball of the 19th over.
The Herts innings was, fortunately, a completely different affair than in the first game with the one exception being Gemma Marriott’s excellent batting. Opening with Millie Dyer the pair put on 44 before Dyer was adjudged LBW (10) in the 11th over. Bex Tyson joined Gemma at the wicket and helped to push the score to 77 before she was caught for 10. However, Herts were already well on the way to victory and Gemma reached her excellent 51 with a well struck 4 just before Jess Potts (3) hit the winning single. A great win and a super all-round performance from the girls.”
Match Scores:
Herts 84-9 (20 overs) lost
by 7 wickets to
Sussex 86-3 (17 overs)
Herts 86-2 (18.3 overs) won
by 8 wickets against
Essex 85-10 (18.1 overs)
Jonathan Cirkel
Herts Girls U17 Manager