2020 End of Season Review......
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After a successful 2019 season which included victory’s over international teams such as the Netherlands, Germany and Oman, the 2020 season was always going to be a different season for the Hertfordshire Women’s team, especially since the ECB decided not to run the longer 50 over Championship. With the unexpected occurrence of a global pandemic it looked at one stage that there would be no cricket at all for the team. When one door closes another will open and with friendlies against sides which it normally would not be possible to play and the newly formed Soroptimists East of England County Championship the season turned out to be a good one in the circumstances.
The season finally got underway in mid-July starting with a series of friendly games. The first was against a very strong Finchley side packed with former internationals, current and past Middlesex county players and future Sunrisers players. The game was won by two superb innings by Cath Dalton (79) and Naomi Dattini (66) with Finchley finishing on 286/8 off their 45 overs. The Hertfordshire bowlers kept chipping away with 3 wickets for Ella Phillips and a double for Alice Baird.
In truth the Hertfordshire batters never looked like keeping up with the rate required to overhaul the Finchley total. Alternatively, the Finchley bowling never looked likely to bowl the Hertfordshire team out as the total reached 178/7 with Lydia Borbas hitting a half century on debut.
Before the start of the SEOECC league Herts took on Bishops Stortford, first in two T20 games and then in a 40 over game the following week. In the T20 games Bishops Stortford included two of the younger members of the Hertfordshire Women’s in their team, namely Lottie Hobson and Mabel Reid team who played for their club on this occasion. The hosts narrowly won both games with Ex Hertfordshire player Sarah Walker scoring heavily in both innings. With the bat Kezia again top scored with 46 with a number of players reaching double figure scores over the two games, notably Amy Price, Lizzie Ruxton, Amelia Kemp, Millie Dyer and Charlotte Banks. With the ball Charley Phillips again impressed with 3/15 off 4 overs in one game and Katherine Webb also manged a spell of 4 overs for only 9 runs. Lottie and Mabel also managed to get among the wickets against their county side.
The following week in the 40 over game it was a different story with Bishops Stortford batting first the top run scorer of the following week Sarah managed only 4 runs. It was up to another ex-Hertfordshire player Nikki Little to lay the foundations of the innings with a well-made 54 in a 94-run partnership with current Essex and Sunrisers player Scarlet Hughes (31). However fantastic seam bowling from Katherine Webb 4/16 and Alice Baird 4/24 limited the home team to 160 all out.
Despite a fiery spell from Essex and (former Hertfordshire teammate) Emma Jones and 3 run outs the Hertfordshire team managed a fairly comfortable win by 4 wickets. Kezia (39), Amelia (32) top scoring with Catherine and Charlotte bringing the team home with an unbeaten 30 run 7th wicket partnership.
A big thank you to Finchley and particular Bishops Stortford in providing really competitive matches.
The Soroptimists East of England Women’s County Championship has been fully covered previously. To recap the team won all three games with a 9-wicket victory over Huntingdonshire and a two thrilling wins over the August bank holiday to win the title with a one wicket win over Buckinghamshire and a super over victory against Norfolk to be the very first winners of the competition.
Before the East of England T20 competition a last 45 over friendly v Cambridgeshire was arranged and saw the visitors post 175 for 8 with spinners Ella and Catherine taking 5 wickets between them and there was also a first wicket for Mabel. Despite a good start with Ella making 31, the Herts side managed to lose 5 wickets for one run with the innings coming to a standstill at 52/5. The Cambridgeshire side were thinking an early trip home when Elsa (22), Charlotte (30) and Catherine (35) had the Cambs skipper making numerous bowling changes as certain victory could now possibly be a defeat. In the end it was a fabulous piece of fielding that saw Catherine run out and the Hertfordshire side only 19 runs short.
The T20 campaign started with Norfolk getting revenge for the 45 over defeat by winning by 5 wickets. Hertfordshire set the hosts 100 to win with Charlotte scoring (47) and Lydia (27) with a 54-run partnership between the pair. Norfolk managed to get the century with 5 balls to spare the Herts wickets coming from Spinners Ella, Lydia and Lizzie. In the day’s 2nd game Norfolk looked set for a double with the openers compiling a 62-run partnership. The Herts bowlers struck back taking 8 wickets for 54 runs including 4 run outs. In reply the batters were always in control of the run rate and managed to overhaul the total of 106 with 3 overs to spare. This time Kezia top scored with 40 while Elsa and Millie reached double figures.
The two T20 games against Huntingdonshire provided two more wins. Limiting the visitors to 102 for 5 in the 20 overs the hosts managed to reached it before the 16th over. Amelia making (37) and again Kezia, Millie and Charlotte also reaching double figures. The 2nd game proved to be even more convincing, reducing Huntingdonshire to 74 all out with 4 wickets for Ella three for Lydia and two for Amelia. After losing Ella for 12, Catherine (34) and Lizzie (14) took the side home with 13 overs to spare.
The team went into the final 2 games needing to beat Buckinghamshire in both to record the double of 45 over and T20 champions. In game one Bucks batted first and Hertfordshire would have been happy to keep the visitors to 102/2 in the 20 overs. It was looking good as Herts reached 55 for 1 after the early loss of Amelia. However, 4 wickets were lost for 7 runs and credit to the Buckinghamshire spinners runs were hard to come by. Eleven runs were need off the last over. Unfortunately, the team finished 3 runs short. For the record Millie top scored with 27 with both Kezia and Lydia also scoring in the 20s.
In the 2nd game the team could either feel sorry for themselves or go and show everyone what they could do. Not surprising with this side, it was the latter. Bucks making 89 for 8 and the Herts side chasing it down with just under half the overs to spare, an 8 wicket win and a despite the disappointment of the first game a fitting way to end the season. Ella amongst the wickets again aided by Lydia, Catherine, Lizzie and Amelia. Catherine also hit an excellent 50 in an 89 run first wicket partnership with Ella.
A big thank you to the Hertfordshire management, board, players and parents in making it all possible in difficult times.
2020 PLAYER AWARDS
Report by Tom Ruxton