ARMY v BPCC (Match 1)

The Army Cricket Ground at Aldershot Vs Army was the venue for the BPCC Women’s inaugural fixture.

The Army Women won the toss and elected to field.

At 11am Holly Hopes and Lorna Jack walked to the middle to create the first piece of history for the BPCC Women’s team.

The score progressed nicely to 13 before Hopes was out LBW for 8 at the end of the 3rd over. Captain, Mandy McGachie, then joined Jack at the crease. The scoring rate raised for the next five overs with good running between the wickets taking the score to 40 in the 8th over until Jack went for a second run and was just short when the bails were removed. She headed back to the pavilion having scored 21 off 18 balls. Jodie White was next in to bat with McGachie. Both players batted well taking the score to 60 in the 14th over with some good bowling by the Army before McGachie was stumped off the bowling of Sullivan for 18 from 34 balls. Shamaila Ahmed joined White, and the score progressed to 69 before White was clean bowled by Sullivan for a useful 11 runs. Jess Nixon was next to the crease (without getting lost) and helped Ahmed take the score to 78 be-fore the former was caught by Deane off her own bowling. Jemma Phillips was the next player to stride to the middle and some good running late in the game helped Ahmed take the score to 85 before Phillips was run out for 2 runs. With four balls remaining in the innings Erica Turner and Ahmed scored a further 4 runs before the innings closed. Shamaila Ahmed ended the match 18 not out from 17 balls and Turner 3 not out.

After a short Break the Army started their innings with Laura Crofts and Victoria Mitchell opening the bowling for BPCC. It took 7.5 overs for the BPCC women to take their first ever competitive wicket and that came when Lorna Jack had G Cant caught behind superbly by wicket keeper Erica Turner. Unfortunately, the score was 54 at this stage and despite a brave determined effort the BPCC women lost by 7 wickets with the army getting the required score with 4 overs to spare. Pick of the bowlers was Holly Hopes 3-1-9-2.

This had been a positive performance for the girls first ever match and Coach Andy Brown was keen to work on certain aspects for the second T20. Too many dot balls (66) were the issue so during the interval team meeting he outlined his aspirations for the next match.