Women’s 1st XI return to winning ways in a dominant performance in Shrewsbury
Having lost the toss as Shrewsbury School, Berkshire were asked to bowl first. The innings got off to an excellent start with two wickets falling inside two overs. Freya Johnson (3/18) had the opening batter caught at cover with the final ball of the first over. In the 2nd over, Shristi Patil produced a full length diving stop at point to save 4 before turning it into a run out to leave Shropshire 2/2. Molly Bulteel (2/28) then got in on the action and combined twice with Fiza Asif Iqbal with the gloves on to leave Shropshire 13/4. Through the middle, the left arm seam of Emily Wilson (1/15) along with Naaz Asif Iqbal (0/20) & Immi Storrar (2/50) produced economical spells to restrict Shropshire’s scoring. A late flurry of runs from Shropshire’s no. 9 lifted them to 167 with Freya returning to pick up the final two wickets.
The run chase got off to an excellent start thanks to Naaz & Shristi. After the 10 over powerplay, Berkshire were 69/0. However, shortly after Naaz was the first batter to depart having made 21 (29b). Ashneet Chahal (4) followed Naaz shortly after thanks to a good catch down leg with Ashneet looking to sweep the spinner. This brought Izzy Storrar to the middle off the back of a positive start on loan at Tier 2 side Gloucestershire. Shristi & Izzy were able to put on 46 runs to move the side closer to securing a win at 128/2. Two quick wickets fell in the space of 3 balls with Izzy (17) caught behind before Iqraa Hussain was adjudged LBW 2nd ball. Yasmin Daswani (15*) joined Shristi Patil at the crease, and the pair were able to put on an unbroken 41 run partnership to secure the victory. Having chased the score 4 down and in only 28 overs that means the side pick up the bonus point win.
As we closed in on the score Shristi Patil was able to bring up what was her maiden Women’s 1st XI century for the county. She finished on 105* (94b) having struck 17 boundaries in the innings. This was our first Women’s 1st XI hundred since Poppy Tulloch in 2023. Shristi now joins a small group of only 6 players to have scored a century for the Women’s 1st XI joining Heather Knight, Claire Taylor, Poppy Tulloch, Alice MacLeod & Ariana Dowse.
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