Poppy Tulloch photographed at the Berkshire Cricket Media Day 2024.
Berkshire Women kick started their county championship campaign with an emphatic 8 wicket win against Bucks on Sunday. Captain Mia Rogers won the toss and bowled first on a wicket offering good pace and movement early on. Both opening bowlers Freya Johnson and Molly Bulteel bowled with good pace and beat the bat on a consistent basis. Staying patient was key and the introduction of spin made the breakthrough with Shayna Chikhlia taking the key wicket of opener Cara Duggan returning figures of 2-22 meant the bowlers could take control through the middle overs. Ceski Clarke with 2-22 and making her debut Mary Briscoe 2-21 along with some excellent fielding including 2 run outs meant that Berkshire bowled Bucks out for 191.
Openers Mia Rogers and Poppy Tulloch set about the chase in emphatic style racing to 66-0 in the first ten overs. The runs continued to flow as the 100 run partnership came up in 99 balls within the hour , both batters looking to target the shorter boundary and running hard. The openers then went onto break a first wicket partnership record that had stood since 2012 (145) set by current England Womens captain Heather Knight in 2012. 166 is now the highest opening stand for the Berkshire women’s side. The team chased down the target 2 down within 28 overs.
Poppy Tulloch 81(78)
Mia Rogers 60 (74)
Head Coach Paul Bew commented after the game ‘ Both openers have put on a fantastic display today and really applied themselves well and played to their strengths. It was brilliant to watch, and we are all delighted for them both. The result was set up really well with the ball this morning with everybody contributing this has been a really professional team performance from the very start. After a long winter it has been great to see the players, hard work pay off today.’
The team will travel to Northants on May 6th to play their next fixture again an 11am start at Geddington Cricket Club.
