Berkshire’s Women’s 1st XI returned to winning ways on Sunday following a few weeks off after our Round 2 defeat to Tier 2 side Kent in the T20 County Cup.
We hosted our first home game of the new Tier 3 structure at Sulhamstead & Ufton CC. With Naaz & Mary, making their first Academy appearances, joining Eliza, Shristi & Bella on Academy duties against Somerset this saw several changes to the side. Making her debut (at her home club) – All Rounder Emma MacEwen came into the side to bat in the middle order and take the new ball. Emma was joined on debut by Left Arm Wrist Spinner – Tanvi Ravikumar. The side was also joined by Middlesex loanees Rachana Cambampaty & Anisha Dissanayake for the fixture.
With captain Izzy Storrar, losing the toss Wiltshire took the opportunity to bat first on a hard but green wicket with what looked to be a quick outfield. With lots of movement on offer early on Freya Johnson (2/24) found the edge of the opening batter on several occasions before in the 5th over the pressure showed and Izzy Storrar was able to hold onto a sharp catch at slip. With 6 spin options available to the captain, spin was quickly introduced in the form of left arm spinner Rachana Cambampaty (2/25) who picked up the 2nd wicket with the opening batter trapped infront. Freya & Rachana would also pick up another wicket with Rachana getting one to come back at Wiltshire’s Sanya Khurana who was on 23 of 17 had has struck 5 boundaries already. Leg spinner Anisha Dissanayake (0/16) would bowl a tight spell and not let the pressure off Wiltshire before off spinners Hollie Summerfield (1/19) and Shayna Chikhlia (4/7) ripped through the lower order to dismiss Wiltshire for 123 in 23 overs.
A new opening partnership would start off our run chase with Izzy Storrar & Poppy Camplin taking responsibility and moving up to the top of the order. A steady start saw both the opening batters rotating strike well in the opening overs before Izzy Storrar dragged one onto her stumps on 14 with the score sat on 25 in the 7th over. This saw Iqraa Hussain come to the crease. Both batters set about rotating strike well and punishing the bad ball with almost chanceless knocks. The pair would end up putting on an unbroken partnership of 99 with Poppy Camplin (58*) securing her maiden 50 for the 1st team and Iqraa Hussain finishing on 42*. This secured a bonus point win in the 27th over.
As we take a break from 50 over action until 10th August, results in the first half of the season leave us sat 2nd in the table with 2 wins and 1 loss. At the end of the season 1st & 2nd place will play in a final to determine the competition winner. From an individual perspective, Freya Johnson leads the competition having picked up the most wickets (8wkts) while Shayna Chikhlia sits in 2nd place (7wkts). Poppy Camplin is our leading run scorer (90) runs and sits in 7th place and also has the 2nd most fielding wickets (5) in the competition. Our attentions now turn to the Tier 3 Vitality Blast T20 competition which sees us play three rounds of games before the group winner plays the north group winner at finals day.
15th June – 2x T20s vs Devon @ Wokingham CC
29th June – 2x T20s vs Hertfordshire @ Wokingham CC
13th July – 2x T20s vs Wiltshire @ Marlborough College