Actonians Cricket Club

Scorecard

Actonians Cricket Club Under 13's Girls v Ealing on Wed 03 May 2023 at 5.30pm
Actonians Cricket Club Lost by 65 runs

Match report Actonians Girls U13 vs Ealing – 3rd May 2023

The view from the boundary – Alex Ebdon

Spring has sprung and another outdoor cricket season begins. With the sun on our faces we went along to our home ground in our lighter coats – a decision that was to prove erroneous as the cold drew in later on! Our first game – 8-a-side 20/20 against the ‘auld enemy’, our neighbours Ealing CC.

Actonians took the field to bowl first. What was noticeable from the start and throughout the game was how great the support was from all the girls to each other. Nice and vocal in the field, celebrating the good things and supporting each other when things went awry. Lovely to see such great team spirit. We just need to work on getting a few new ‘calls’ though. The classics of “wicket ball” and “you’ve got this” need some new blood adding! (ideas on a postcard please…)

But I digress. To the action. The story of the Actonians bowling performance was one of great control and application, interspersed with moments of jubilation when wickets fell. Valeria, Freya C and Daisy all bowled with good control to choke any opening flow of runs in the early overs. Fielding was good from the team. Pressure was mounting.
Up to the mark came Sienna for the 4th over and gained a wicket clean bowled with her very first delivery! Brilliant stuff.

Daisy, Sienna, Caitlin and Freja DB all continued to hold good lines and lengths to make scoring hard. Molly was great behind the stumps, ensuring that very little went past for extras.
And again the pressure was rewarded in the 9th over as Caitlin gained Actonians’ second wicket - clean bowled again! Should be said that this delivery was immediately pre-empted from the boundary by Naomi announcing that we’d “not had a wicket for a while”. Talk about commentator’s blessing!

Good bowling and fielding continued and in the 12th over Valeria turned up the heat. Bowling with her trademark pace and fire she trapped the batter lbw (a real rarity!) and then destroyed the stumps with her very next ball. The hat-trick was on, but we’d have to wait to her next over for the opportunity.

While that hat-trick didn’t come, Valeria took another wicket in the 14th and with Sienna taking another in the 15th things were looking good. Ealing were 63 for 6. Just one more wicket to take!
Amongst this it should be noted that Ealing’s star player was still in. And at this point, with batting support nearly gone, she started to turn it on a bit. Despite great efforts from the Actonians team, the girls just couldn’t take the final wicket and runs began to mount a little. In the end, an unbeaten 57 from Ealing’s Lily took their total to a pretty respectable 114. The rest of the Ealing side scored just 18 runs between them! The rest were extras – perhaps a few too many, so something to keep working on. It just shows, if you can stick around as a team to play the full 20 overs then runs will likely come.
Right then. Pads on. Helmet fixed. Out to middle swinging the bat like Botham in ’81.

Overall the girls showed great application and effort with the bat, against some really quality bowling from the Ealing team. Interesting to see the Ealing keeper standing a full pitch-length back from the stumps for some bowlers! Testament to the pace.

Valeria and Caitlin started well and our run-rate was on track. Good calling and running (most of the time) meant the flow of runs was good. Caitlin played some very nice glances down to 3rd man, one to the boundary.

With Valeria bowled in the 3rd (a very good delivery), Sienna came in, followed by Freja DB who hit a glorious square cut first up for 4. It was like watching Robin Smith in his pomp (for those that remember).

What was obvious was that the indoor season had created something of a double-edged sword in terms of technique and decision-making. Actonians’ calling was generally great and plenty of runs were taken where last season they might not have been. But the quest to score at all costs meant our batting approach was a little rash at times and some of the running was almost suicidal! We were lucky not to be run out a few times.

Anyway, back to the action. Caitlin’s dogged innings came to an end in the 8th – very well caught one-handed at point. Freja was bowled by another excellent delivery to bring Molly into the middle. Sienna had earlier taken a nasty hit and then Alice wore a brute of a delivery which meant she unfortunately had to retire with injury.
Freya C and Molly were our last stand. Both girls displayed good technique, with Molly showing some nice defensive strokes and footwork. It was always a big ask by this point though and indeed in the 11th Molly edged one to the keeper. All over, Actonians 49 all out.

114-49 looks like a bit of a beating on paper. But we need to bear in mind the impact of the one Ealing batter – Lily – getting her half century. Otherwise this game was mighty, mighty close, and one more wicket in the Actonians bowling effort might well have led to a victory. By these small margins…

In terms of learnings overall, from the boundary rope I saw it like this. Team spirit was great – keep it up (with some added variety in calls!) Pushing a little harder in the field could bring great rewards – stay sharp! With the bat we could do with staying a little calmer and letting runs come rather than trying to force runs off every ball. Defend the good balls, hit the bad ones, leave the wides.
Overall a great start to the season against tough opposition. Well done team!

Thanks to Chris for coaching & umpiring, Tracey for scoring, and Kamal for additional coaching support.


The view from the middle – Chris Tracey

In terms of bowling I thought both sides were pretty strong and a similar standard. Particular shout outs to Valeria and Sienna who got 5 wickets between them. There were 29 wides/no balls which is probably more than we would have liked, but not bad compared with similar games in previous years. Likewise, I felt there wasn’t much difference in the fielding: Ealing were a bit noisier, and of course there was that brilliant one-handed catch. But overall if felt fairly similar in terms of backing-up, stopping the ball and general intensity. That’s not to say our fielding was perfect: I’d probably give it a 6-7 out of 10, but it wasn’t the difference between the teams.

My initial feeling was that their batting was stronger, but having looked at the scorecard, it was more complicated than that. They were 63-6 in the 15th over and if we had got the last wicket quickly we would have been firm favourites. As it was their top scorer (Lily) helped them score 50 plus in the 5 and a bit overs, and probably put the game out of reach. Our running between the wickets was quite sharp and we were as good as they were at grabbing quick runs. What their other batters did better than ours was stick around when they weren’t scoring quickly, and it was this which put them in a position to get those high scoring overs at the end.

Other incidental details:
1) It was cold enough for the umpires to both need two jackets;
2) It was my first game as a junior ‘qualified’ umpire;
3) We got an LBW, which is quite unusual at this level.

Ealing Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10nb 19w 6b 4lb 
for 6 wickets
39
114 (20.0 overs)		     
Anshi b  Sienna 5
Vianna b  Caitlin 7
Lily Not Out  57
Jojo lbw  Valeria 4
Noushi b  Valeria 0
Nishka b  Valeria 0
Annika b  Sienna 0
Leela Not Out  2
   
   
   

Actonians Cricket Club Under 13's Girls Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Valeria Barrocas La Femina3.00632.002.00
Freya Cornish1.00400.004.00
Daisy Bal2.001200.006.00
Sienna Walji4.001728.504.25
Caitlin Jones4.0024124.006.00
Freja Davies-Baker2.001400.007.00
Alice Stone4.002700.006.75

Actonians Cricket Club Under 13's Girls Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 2w 13b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
20
49		        
Valeria Barrocas La Femina b  Lily 9
Caitlin Jones ct  Noushi (Nishka) 8
Sienna Walji b  Anshi 0
Freja Davies-Baker b  Noushi 4
Alice Stone retired not out  Injured 0
Molly Ebdon ct  Anshi (Annika) 5
Freya Cornish b  Lily 3
Daisy Bal Not Out  0
Selected member not found  
Selected member not found  
Selected member not found  

Ealing Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Vianna2.00800.004.00
Nishka2.00700.003.50
Anshi2.10623.002.77
Lily2.00321.501.50
Jojo1.00400.004.00
Noushi1.00623.006.00

  • Umpire :
    Chris Tracy
  • Scorer :
    Tracey Ashby