Club Cricket Conference v BPCC

Match 1

BPCC travelled to Odiham & Greywell CC for their third day of 2 x T20 matches against Club Cricket Conference Representative Women’s Xl.

On a beautiful sunny day BPCC won the toss and decided to field first. CCC openers took the score to 14 in the fourth over before Lorna Jack had Nat Mitchell bowled for 4 runs. Next in was Anje Lague for CCC and along with Dani Ransley progressed the score to 43 off 8 before Ransley was caught behind by Sian Phillips off the bowling of Victoria Mitchell for an excellent 30 from 29 balls. Charlotte Schooling was next to bat and along with Lague hit 29 runs from the next five overs including several well-timed shots to the boundary. Jenny Coupe then had Lague superbly caught by Jess Nixon for 23 runs, and this was quickly followed by Schooling being caught behind by Phillips off the bowling of Laura Crofts for 9 runs at the end of the 14th over. The score was 77 for 4 off 14 and with six overs to go and two new batters at the crease the game had swung back in the favour of BPCC.

Another 9 runs were scored before another wicket brought two. Rebecca Hartnett out for 8 caught by Sarah Witham off the bowling of Crofts. This was followed by Hanna James being clean bowled by Coupe the following over leaving the score at 86 for 6 off 16.3 overs. Batters Mel Storey and Rebecca Tyson dug deep and scored some vital runs at the end of the innngs to take to score to 106 in the last over before Tyson was out with three balls to go for 7 and leaving Storey 11 not out. Final score was 112 for 7 off 20 overs.

Pick of the bowlers for BPCC were Laura Crofts 4-0-3-22, Holly Hopes 3-1-10-0 who helped put the brakes on the run rate and Jenny Coupe 4-0-18-2 who bowled very well as well as taking the wicket of the dangerous looking Lague.

Opening for the BPCC innings was Lorna Jack with Laura Crofts.

Both had hit 50’s the previous day so there were high hopes. Unfortunately, in the first over Hayley Arrol had Crofts caught for a duck and Holly Hopes was next in to partner Lorna Jack at the crease. The score was 4 for 1 and was not the start BPCC had wanted. Jack and Hopes played well for the next number of overs with good running between the wickets and some excellent boundaries before Arrol bowled Jack at the end of the 5th over for 19 runs. The score was 34 for 2 off 5 overs. Unfortunately, Hanna James had new batsman Sian Phillips out the following over for a duck leaving BPCC on 35 for 3 off 6 overs. With wickets falling Jenny Coupe was next in and playing a more defensive role helped to support Holly Hopes to stabilise the innings and start to score runs. At the end of the 12th over with the score on 69 Coupe was caught off the bowling of Tyson for 16 runs. Captain Mandy McGachie now joined Hopes (26*) at the crease and both Hopes and McGachie’s experience showed as the scored progressed to 93 before Hartnett caught McGachie off her own bowling for 13runs.

20 runs now required from 24 balls victory was in sight for BPCC but that required Hopes to bat through the next four overs. With the loss of Lucy Johnson at the end of 18th over for 6 runs and Jess Nixon the following over for a duck it was a nervous finish but with 3 balls to spare Holly Hopes hit the winning runs to give BPCC their first victory of the day and second of the week. Holly Hopes scoring 45* (47 balls) was yet another impressive innings and showed the depth of talent the squad had and was starting to show.