Southgate's women's team won their final East Division fixture to ensure they go into the final with a 100% record in competitive matches.
With Enfield only able to get 5 players together on bank holiday weekend we lent them Mareeni Raymond for the day and Shikhaa Gupta kindly agreed to not to bat for us in a 6-a-side match.
As has become somewhat of a tradition, Emma Dangerfield won the toss and chose to bat first - classic Sagittarius. Mel Rivera Caceres and Pooja Patel went out first and got the innings off to a great start by running extremely well; calling clearly and decisively. A well struck boundary from Pooja saw 30 runs added without a wicket falling in the opening pair’s four overs.
Emma and Piumi Bandara batted next and continued the fast scoring rate after negotiating a good first over from Enfield's stand-in captain Tracey. Their approach was more boundary oriented with Emma striking two 4s and Piumi one as they added a further 34 runs without losing a wicket.
Geethika Ayomi and Soph Meyer were our final pair and really took the game away from the home side. Geethika was back in action in the purple of Southgate after three weeks in Sri Lanka and showed us what we've been missing, depositing three 4s and three 6s powerfully into the leg side boundary. Soph also played her part, hitting a 4 and a 2, the latter would have been 4 if it were not for some determined boundary fielding from Mareeni. She also perfectly executed a cheeky reverse sweep to manipulate the field!
Some good running in the final over took the pair’s contribution to 52 and the team’s total to 116 without loss. This was the first time we've finished an innings without losing a wicket and this combined with good running and accomplished stroke play made for a complete batting performance.
Pooja and Mel opened the bowling with 2 overs each and both bowled really nicely. Mel's first over was the best she's bowled in a match and it was great to see the improvement she's made in competitive action. Pooja’s consistency was rewarded with a wicket in her second over- a well taken catch by Shikhaa.
Emma, Shikhaa and Piumi bowled the middle overs and their accuracy stifled Enfield's second pair. With only one boundary scored, very few extras bowled and a number of dot balls recorded, pressure eventually told and a wicket came in Shikhaa’s over, a run out calmly executed my Soph. Similar to Mel earlier, Piumi bowled the best couple of overs she has in a match. Her increased pace and accuracy made for a threatening spell and she was unlucky not to take a wicket.
Soph and Geethika closed out the innings efficiently. Geethika’s first over yielded another trademark Soph runout and despite some impressive late hitting from Enfield's talented batter Lois, the hosts finished well short of the imposing Southgate target on 94-3.
Soph could have had a hattrick of runouts as the bails failed to dislodge when one of her throws hit the stumps and there was notably good ground fielding from Shikhaa, Piumi, Pooja, Emma, Mel and Mareeni (for the opposition in Mareeni’s case!). Geethika was reliable behind the stumps, so this was an excellent all round performance and one that sets us up nicely for the final in 2 week's time.
Max Joseph