Sunday 24th August saw the Women’s 1st XI return to winning ways following a tough trip to Cheshire. The side dominated the game for large parts and secured a 5 wicket win over 2nd place Staffordshire.
Having won the toss, Berkshire decided to bowl first on a pitch that looked as if it would offer something for the bowlers if they found the right lengths to take advantage of the surface. Leading the bowling attack, Freya Johnson (2/15) set the tone early giving the batters no opportunities to score and bowling back-to-back maiden overs with her 2nd over also accounting for the 1st wicket. 17 year old – Emma MacEwen, in only her 2nd first team game followed Freya’s lead to remove the other opening batter to have Staffs at 5/2 after 4 overs. Emma went on to pick up another wicket in the powerplay leaving Staffs 19/3 after 10 overs. Eliza Bristowe (1/21) was then introduced into the attack and followed on from the openers consistently challenging the batters outside edge while restricting run scoring opportunities. The middle overs saw the spin of Naaz Asif Iqbal (2/32) and Shayna Chikhlia (1/20) continue to squeeze for large parts of the Staffordshire innings leaving them 74/8. However, a counterattack led by the Staffs no. 9 saw another 50 runs added to the total before Staffordshire were dismissed for 124 in the 41st over. Emma MacEwen ended up with 4/21 from 6.3 overs with the first wicket of the day being her maiden senior wicket.
The bowlers executed the plans perfectly, with the seamers pitching the ball up and using the swing and lift off the ridge at either end to create catching opportunities in the ring. The chances created by the bowlers could have easily led to Staffordshire being all out for 80-odd.
Newly formed opening partnership saw the returning Alex Avoth and Poppy Camplin come together to start the innings off. Alex got the innings off to a brilliant start putting the pressure straight onto the bowlers striking 5 boundaries in the first 3 overs. However, an early mix up in the running saw the first wicket fall with the score on 29 with Poppy Camplin run out. Despite the change of partners Alex continued to take the attack to the bowlers with runs flowing freely. However, in the final over of the powerplay, Alex would depart for 47 (32b) trying to launch a full toss for a 2nd consecutive 6 into the Little Stoke CC car park, leaving the score on 67/2 after 10. Having played a supporting role to Alex, Iqraa Hussain (20) quickly picked up from where Alex had left off hitting a 6 and a 4 in the following over. However, Staffordshire’s hopes of pinching a victory were lifted as they picked up the wickets of Berkshire’s no. 3, 4 & 5 in the space of 18 balls with two new batters at the crease and the score 102/5. This brought 16 year olds Eliza Bristowe & Lily Bowlby to the crease. Despite a few tense moments, the young batters navigated their way to a 26-run partnership to complete the win without the loss of any further wickets. The run chase was completed well within the limit to pick up the bonus point that could prove important come the end of the season.
Just like the bowlers, the batters adapted to conditions well and had clear plans with how to go about the run chase on the surface in front of them. The batters looked to fully commit and hit over the top of the ring in the powerplay and capitalise on anything short that sat up to be hit.
The bonus point win moved the side back up the table to 3rd place on 15 points, 4 points behind 2nd place Bucks who Berkshire will face last game of the season. With Devon seemingly runaway leaders of the group with 5 wins from 5, that leaves 4 teams playing it out for the 2nd place spot to go through to finals day with just 6 points separating the 4 sides.