Another beautiful day saw the Falkland U15s travel to a strong Hungerford team. The toss was won by Captain Issy and we decided to field first.

The Hungerford batters started strong, the first wicket fell in the fourth over, Cordi with a nice flighted ball, the batter struck the ball hard to long on, but Anabel pulled off a great catch. 33-1 in the 4th over. The runs slowed down after this wicket. Grace claimed the next wicket in the 7th over, a great LBW 49-2. Next bowl was even better, just swinging away and clipping off stump, two wickets in two balls, and the boys were in a bit of trouble.

The 9th over saw the next wicket, captain Issy with a great clean bowled 63-4. Next over saw Amelia pick up an LBW 66-5. The Hungerford skipper was batting well, but the Falkland skipper was bowling better, as Issy got her second wicket of the match, clean bowling her opponent 68-6.

The girls were letting the boys off the hook, giving away too many extras. Poppy claimed the next wicket, another straight ball missed by the batter 98-7. Milla picked up her first wicket in the 18th over another straight ball 102.8. Captain Issy bowled the last over and claimed the final wicket with ‘another straight one’ 114-9 from 20 overs.

The girls were in this match and the message was, play straight and look for the gaps, and no silly runs in the first couple of overs.

The first wicket fell on the 4th ball, Alexa hit a lovely shot, but straight to a fielder and set off for a run. The fielder passed the ball in nicely and Alexa was out, 3 yards short of the crease, 2-1. Isabel and Daisy were batting well against good bowling. But Isabel fell after hitting the ball straight to the close fielder. 23-2. Daisy was next out, playing across the line to a straight ball. 29-3.

This meant Captain Issy and Anabel were batting together. Issy faced a hostile over, with the ball fizzing past her head at points. The girls dug deep and both hit boundaries, Issy hitting a huge straight six, which had the crowd going crazy. The start of the 13th over saw Issy clean bowled. 57-4. Grace, after hitting a couple aerial, picked out a fielder and was out caught 67-5. Amelia was next out, playing across the line to a straight ball 72-6.

The boys were still worried. Milla and Anabel each hit a boundary, but going on the attack, Milla picked out a fielder. 85-7. Two balls later Anabel was unlucky to be run out. The bowler attempting to stop the ball, deflected it onto the stumps and Anabel was out of her crease 85-8. Poppy and Caitlin were now in. Poppy was next out, run out, and the following ball Caitlin was also run out.

Falkland finishing 93 all out.

The difference was the extras. We gave away 23 more extras than Hungerford and were beaten by just 21 runs. Both teams struggled with the straight ball, we just need to produce more straight balls than we currently are, once we do this, we will win matches.

Match Report: Ian Gibson