Southgate U11 v Winchmore Hill A

Southgate U11 faced the daunting challenge of going up against undefeated Winchmore Hill A missing a few key players to injury and school trips but positively, this created an opportunity to create history and allowed Southgate to play two girls in a junior fixture for the very first time.

Niam won the toss and elected to field. Southgate started reasonably well keeping the run rate below 7 for the first 5 overs and only conceding 2 boundaries.

The good work continued and Southgate were rewarded with their first wicket in the 7th over, Dhyaan clean bowling the Winchmore batter. Another tight over left Winchmore 45-1 after 8 overs.

It was in the middle and later overs that Winchmore Hill started to up the run rate and the following 5 overs went for 50 runs and the next 5, a further 58.

The last two overs saw Southgate claim their second wicket but also concede more boundaries allowing Winchmore Hill to finish on 177 – 2 and post a very stiff target of 178 to win.

Southgate put up a spirited effort in reply and whilst losing wickets on a regular basis, gave Niam the platform to play a skippers inning and score 31 off 29 balls an innings that included a number of lovely back foot drives and intelligent running. Nearly every other batter contributed, including a lovely leg side boundary by Pinidi on her debut, but the illusive three-figure total was missed by the slimmest of margins with Southgate finishing on 99-7 in their 20 overs, enough, however, to gain them 3 league points.

Match Report: David Cox