Bowling into the Regional Finals

On Thursday 23^rd June, the U15s Girls Cricket Team competed in the outdoor schools cricket competition. The event was held at Horncastle Cricket Club and the team played against five schools from across Lincolnshire. The team was made up of 10 students; Carys James, Jess Frick, Lily Alexander, Millie Walker, Lacey Holgate, Maggie Ward, Maisie Farrington, Flora Gemmell, Amelie Millns and Sara Rajapaksha.

In the first game, the team faced Bourne Grammar. QEGS won the toss and elected to bowl first. QEGS started well, with Carys James opening the bowling making it difficult for Bourne to score runs. QEGS fielded well and after 10 overs Bourne scored a total of 77 runs. QEGS knew that if they scored 78 runs they would win the opening match. Straight from the first ball, Bourne meant business; bowling with pace and aggression. However, this didn’t intimidate QEGS, who batted extremely well scoring plenty of fours. After 10 overs, QEGS scored 65 runs, they fell short by only 12 runs.

Despite, losing the first match (against arguably against the strongest team) QEGS were full of confidence and knew where they needed to improve – their bowling. Up next was Kesteven & Grantham Girls School. QEGs loss the toss and the opposition decided to bowl first. The team knew they had to bat well to set a high score for the opposition to chase down. The team did exactly that by punishing some poor bowling and scored several fours and sixes. After 10 overs, QEGS managed to rack up 97 runs! Kevsteven & Gratham went into bat, fully aware that they had to come at an attack and they did just that by scoring plenty of runs in first few overs. However, QEGS managed to take some vital wickets, getting their best batters out. As a result, the opposition ran out of ideas and scored 69 runs. QEGS had their first win on the board.

The third match was quickly upon the team and this time they were up against their local rivals Banovallum. QEGS won the toss and put Banovallum into bat first. The team bowled and fielded superbly and because of this Banovallum could only managed to score 37 runs from 10 overs. Despite the target only being 38 runs to win the game, the team knew that they still had a job to do. The team were ruthless in their batting and were able to knock off 38 runs in just under 5 overs. Job done and a second consecutive win under the team’s belt.

After lunch, the team played their fourth game against St Georges, Sleaford. After losing the toss QEGS were put into bat first. QEGS started on the front foot, with Carys James, Jess Frick and Maggie Ward performing well with the bat. The strong batter continued throughout the team and this showed after 10 overs. QEGS scoring 94 runs off 50 balls. QEGS were full of confidence and their bowling was much improved, giving away less no balls than they had in their previous matches. A combination of good bowling and fielding, meant that St Georges were limited to scoring at total of 59 runs. Another comprehensive win for the team.

In their final match, the team were up against a very resilient Somercotes Academy team. QEGS loss the toss and were again put into bat first. The team batted well, but Somercotes Academy made it difficult with some accurate bowling and effective fielding.  QEGS managed to score a decent 71 runs from 10 overs. Somercotes Academy were confident that this score could be beaten. QEGS started well, but failed to make a break through with a wicket. As the overs went on, QEGS became nervous and started to make uncharacteristic mistakes. Somercotes Academy sensed this and went all out in their batting. The last over was tense as Somercotes Academy only needed 3 runs to win the game. However, Sara Rajapaksha stepped up to bowl and showed remarkable calmness in such a pressured situation to ensure QEGS were victorious. Somercotes Academy finished on 68 runs.

The team finished in 2^nd place (to Bourne Grammar) and as a result qualified for the regional finals at the University of Loughborough. This was fully deserved as the team played extremely well both with bat and ball.