Women's 3rd Grade Round 7: UTS North Sydney v Parramatta at Richie Benaud Oval (T20)
UTS North Sydney 3/62 (cc) (A Gibbons 30*, A Dongre 20*) def by Parramatta 9/68 (cc) (G Keating 3/8, A Dongre 2/10)
Almost certainly our most exciting match yet, and definitely our best fielding and bowling performance!
The day started with a few ominous signs: an exceptionally slow outfield, stifling heat and humidity, and "she's a first-grader, and she's a state player". Oh dear. And on our side: welcome to Amy Hessell, who first picked up a cricket ball three days before in a 20-minute training session in the rain!
We won the toss and skipper Hetti Blackburn put Parramatta in to bat. Anjali d'Cunha, who hasn't played since mid-November, opened our bowling with an over that went for 10 runs and ended with her saying "captain, I'm not sure I should bowl again". Every cricketer will love her captain's response: "I believe in you, keep going". And Anjali duly delivered, returning an eventual four overs for only 12 runs! Anushka Dongre (2/10 off 4) wasn't fazed at all by the First Grader and promptly bowled her with her very first ball! A few overs later, one of the moments of the season: Cabby Bailey chased after a ball headed for four with great determination, and with applause and cheers from her teammates and opponents alike, produced our team's first ever sliding pick-up and throw ... in itself a reason to celebrate! ... only to return the throw directly to Anjali for a superb run-out exactly "as seen on TV"! Brilliant. And not finished yet...
Grace Keating (3/9 off 4) and Tilly Kingsmill (1/8 off 3) came on as first changes and kept things equally tight, restricting Parramatta from scoring through a combination of great length and attacking the stumps. Tilly Kingsmill dropped one slightly short and Parramatta's super-star Lucy Wilson (who just last week made 206 - not a typo, that's 206 runs in one innings - off 138 balls in a reps-level U15 tournament in Orange!) played a great shot which looked like another four ... but Hetti had just moved Cabby into short leg ("45") ... yes, Cabby again, superb moment number two as she held a blistering catch in one of the most difficult fielding positions in cricket! The applause from the opposition for the first run-out turned sour, with quite a bit of sledging aimed at Cabby for the rest of the match (something she interpreted as a compliment, though she did maybe tell them that and maybe a few other words!) Grace Keating then efficiently ran through Parramatta's middle order, with two bowled and one lbw to send #4, #5 and #6 packing. Fantastic bowling, directly comparable IMHO to Scott Boland: on the spot, you miss, I hit!
As an aside and while on the subject of the tournament in Orange, another big congratulations to Shiloh Julien, our 12-year old star who we as Third Grade have adopted ever since she came to our training match and very impressively took control as captain, set her fields as she wanted, bowled beautifully and joined Amy in the highest partnership of the day. Shiloh played the same tournament as said Lucy Wilson above and made the 4th highest total runs in the tournament, with the 3rd highest average, that included a spectacular 100* off just 116 balls against a team from Gordon that included most of their Brewers players. Awesome Shiloh, we can't wait to see you in action in Brewers and/or 3rds.
OK, back to our game ...
Parramatta were reeling at 5/34 after 10 overs, then managed a bit of a fightback with a 27-run stand for the sixth wicket before Grace held a good catch at short mid-wicket to give Cabby (1/17 off 3) her first wicket ever as a bowler. Evy McKay (0/6), having kept for the first 10 overs, was given an over of spin and Amy Hessell, in her first game of cricket ever, was given an over which she afterwards described as "I was so nervous because I knew we were doing well and I didn't want to mess it all up!", but her line and length were spot on as she bowled six dot balls and just a single no-ball! Well bowled Amy, welcome to the Bears!
The tail didn't last long and Parramatta were all out for just 68 runs. The slow outfield had played its part ... only three fours in their entire innings ... but of course we would have the same struggle.
However, our real struggle was the bowling ... with speeds that we've never seen before and lengths that can best be described as unplayable, Parramatta were on fire with the ball. Could we cope?
Anushka (20*) and Sarah (1) bravely agreed to open after most players were completely fascinated by their shoes when the coach asked "so, who wants to open today?"! Sarah has been working hard on her batting, and turned a ball on leg stump around the corner for a very satisfying single - a shot she's just recently started to play, great to see it working, and on another field, that may well have been four. But to be honest, in only her second season of red-ball cricket ever she really struggled against the exceptional pace and length, falling to a bruiser on the foot for lbw. But she'd seen off 7 balls from the openers ... 7 fewer for the rest of the team to face!
Grace (1), recently selected for NSW Metro (big congrats Grace, we're very proud of you!) joined Anushka and also found the pace and length challenging, managing to keep out 5 balls before the First-Grader cleaned out her stumps. At 2/7, things weren't looking good.
Amy Gibbons (30*) then joined Anushka (20*) and the pair looked like they were fighting for survival more than anything else. The outfield wasn't giving up fours, so fielders could risk coming in really close and cutting off the ones, plus the line and length bowling at severe pace made scoring incredibly difficult. They squeezed out singles where they could, running hard in the very hot and humid conditions, taking us to 2/11 after 7 overs before starting to accelerate slightly to 2/23 after 10 overs. Amy's powerful drives were rolling up five metres short of the boundary, and it was only when she managed to get some aerial (tough under that bowling length) that she managed the only three fours of our innings. Overs 11, 12 and 14 were better, delivering 7, 6 and 7 runs respectively.
At 45 after 14 overs, we needed just 24 runs off 36 balls to win, with 8 wickets standing. But Anushka was calling for extra drinks and looking a little glassy eyed from running so hard in the heat. The coach ran drinks out at 10 overs and 14 overs and reminded her that she could retire hurt, but she's tough and determined and could see victory in sight....
In Third Grade T20s, the rule is that on 30 runs you have to retire - that was a fantastic effort from Amy, 30* off 48 balls in that heat and against that outfield and that bowling ... genuinely one of her best innings yet! Evy McKay (2) then joined Anushka and realised what all the fuss was about: great bowling and tough scoring conditions, but she threw everything at it anyway in a ferocious effort for her team. Then we saw one of those signals you don't want to see: a batter calling for help. Anushka mumbled something barely audible to the umpire about being unable to continue and made it about 10 metres from the wicket before needing help to keep her upright, water to stem the building nausea and arms to help her off the field and into an ice vest. She had given it everything in fighting for every run: 14 singles and 6 twos. Fantastic effort Anushka!
And speaking of effort, in this incredible heat and humidity, two other people were being just brilliant off the field. Michael Keating and Chloe Blackwell were having a full-on cricket training session next to the scorers (thanks again, Guy Kingsmill!). Chloe is new to cricket this season and Michael was patiently throwing ball after ball for Chloe to learn - fantastic to see. And when Chloe stopped batting herself, she was happily running around fetching balls for other players to do throw-downs. Thank you both, that's amazing. Chloe - you've earned a special right: next match, pick the number you'd like to bat, it's yours.
OK, back to the excitement. Hetti Blackburn joined Evy as the run rate was climbing - we needed 16 off 18 - Hetti swung hard but fell lbw to the same Lucy Wilson, without scoring. Next up, Anna Lucas (3) - her teammates had suggested trying a different approach: drop-and-run the singles! Parramatta were worried about boundaries at this point, so the singles were there if you were smart and quick, and Anna is both. Great backing up, great calling, great scampering, sliding of bat, all there ... Anna was teaching our whole team a new way of scoring runs, something to really pay attention to! As a result, Anna had the highest strike rate of any of our batters ... well batted, Anna!
We needed 13 off 12 balls, Parramatta could feel the pressure ... and that creates mistakes - an overthrow turned 1 into 2, and another 2 ... 4 off the over, 9 needed off the last over....
Heroes, yes. Guts and determination, plenty. Standing tall against the odds, absolutely. Our narrowest margin in a game ever, yes... but Parramatta held on for the win, by just six runs.
Aaaarrrgghhhh!!! So close, so brilliant!
What a game!
Isn't cricket awesome?!!!