Girl cricketers win Brighton tournament
The girls' senior cricket team maintained their unbeaten run on Sunday by winning the first ever independent schools girls' cricket festival hosted by Brighton College.
The novel format of the competition involved teams of eight playing eight over matches with bowlers limited to two overs each and batsmen required to retire once they reached 25 runs. The boundaries were small and fielding had to be excellent to secure a win.
In their first match against Wellington College, Epsom won the toss and decided put Wellington into bat. Suzie Blunt took a wicket with the first ball of the match and Alice Davidson-Richards took a late caught and bowled as Wellington were restricted to 64-2 in their eight overs.
In reply, Epsom reached the target of 65 runs for the loss of one wicket with an over to spare to win by 7 wickets. Natalie Sciver top scored with 23 not out and was well supported by Davidson-Richards with 15 and Emma Albon on 7 not out.
In the second match, hosts Brighton College, one of the top schools in the country for girls' cricket, won the toss and opted to bat. Outstanding fielding by all the Epsom players kept the run rate down and Brighton finished on 66-2. Sciver was the pick of the bowlers, bagging a wicket and a run out.
In their innings, Epsom managed to score 67-0 to win by 8 wickets in only 5 overs and one ball. Davidson-Richards scored an electric 26, including 4 fours and a six, before retiring and Sciver hit 5 fours in an unbeaten 24.
The final match saw Epsom pitched against local rivals Cranleigh with victory certain to secure the tournament title. Cranleigh batted first and scored 68-4, with Wendy Sun, Davidson-Richards and Sciver taking a wicket each and Carina Lindberg getting a run out.
With a target of 69 for victory, the Epsom girls set about the task aggressively. Sciver raced to 28 before retiring and with the score on 64 and her own total on 21, Davidson-Richards hit an enormous 6 on the leg side to take Epsom to an 8 wicket victory in just 5 overs.
These latest victories mean that the College's girls' cricket teams have won six matches out of six this season and Epsom is the first name on the Brighton tournament shield.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Cricket 0 comments
