Southgate Women vs Shepherds Bush Women
406 days after the club held its first ever women’s cricket session, Southgate’s Women’s team hosted Shepherd’s Bush in the MWCL Softball Cricket final. Getting to this stage so quickly is a huge achievement in itself, but having come this far the group were determined to crown their achievements with the trophy.
Captain Emma Dangerfield was leading the team in contradiction of doctor’s advice after collapsing in the last 800m of a half marathon 6 days previously. Her first act was to win the toss and she chose to bat, sending out Alanka Goonawardena and Fran Fell as Southgate’s first pair.
There were understandable nerves in the camp as the team were playing in front of a crowd for the first time with a trophy on the line. These nerves manifested into the worst possible start with a runout from the first ball of the match. However this seemed to settle the first pair, as after that they each picked up a boundary and a single in the first over. The following three overs continued in a similar vein with boundaries and singles picked up regularly to move the team’s total to 232 (37-1) after 4 overs.
Piumi Bandara and Devki Shah came in second and accumulated steadily, while never looking like being dismissed. The pair displayed calmness alongside positive running to allow Shepherds Bush to bowl very few dot balls, adding another 27 runs without losing a wicket. At the innings’ half way stage the score was 259 (64-1). Coach Max Joseph likes his team to aim for a scoring rate of a run per ball, so this represented a solid position.
Emma and Megan Gibbs both favour boundary hitting over cautious accumulation and while a combination of injury recovery and nerves meant that they weren’t at their destructive best, the pair added a further 27-1. Four 4s did most of the damage, each player struck one on the ‘posh side’ to get the crowd purring.
Geethika Ayomi and Maddie Unthank closed the Southgate innings. Southgate have become accustomed to Geethika’s powerful boundary hitting – in a recent match against Enfield she dispatched 34 from 14 deliveries – but a combination of some good Shepherds Bush bowling and perhaps the occasion stemmed her flow. She did score 11 from 11 balls, we’ve just come to expect more from our star player! However, Maddie stepped into centre stage hitting 15 from 13 including three 4s, two in the final over, to ensure Southgate went into the innings break with momentum. Southgate finished on 310 (120/2).
Just as in the first, the second innings got off to an ominous start with Bush’s talented opening batter Urmila Vedhairi dispatching Alanka’s first ball for 4. Alanka and Devki bowled the first 6 overs in tandem and did their best to contain Urmila, but it wasn’t an easy task as demonstrated by a 6 she larruped over extra cover in the third over. Our opening bowlers were backed up by some excellent fielding on the leg side boundary. Particular credit should go to Maddie who was especially busy and had she not been as alert as she was, the score after 4 overs may have been difficult to come back from. Devki took a sharp return catch on the penultimate ball of the 4th over to give Southgate a very welcome wicket and as Bush’s first pair walked off their score was 234 (39-1) two runs ahead of where Southgate had been at the same stage.
Alanka and Devki found the second Bush pair easier to contain in their final overs and were replaced by Piumi and Maddie who bowled brilliantly in the middle overs. Piumi’s two overs went for a miserly 7 runs and Maddie’s an equally impressive 8 and in this period the momentum began to swing back towards Southgate.
Fran and Geethika closed out the innings with 3 overs each in tandem. Fran’s first went for just a single to turn up the pressure that Piumi and Maddie had begun to apply. Geethika was clearly determined to make an impact on the game with the ball after a disappointing (by her very high standards) return with the bat, and wasted no time. In the final over of Bush’s penultimate pair, Geethika conceded just 1 run from her first 4 balls, before clean bowling each batter in consecutive balls!
Having faced an over from each of Piumi, Maddie, Fran and Geethika, Bush’s third pair had scored just 10 runs and lost 2 wickets, effectively not adding to the score. This meant that Bush required 58 to win from the final 4 overs. A game that had felt so tense just 8 overs previously, now seemed a foregone conclusion!
Shepherds Bush’s final pair included strong left handed batter Miranda Thompson who put her first ball away for 4, but against Fran and Geethika they were never going to score at the required rate. In the penultimate over Fran completed a run out at the bowler's end after a neat collection from Emma and in the final over Geethika took two more wickets. One was a stunning caught and bowled inches in front of the non striker’s face and the other clean bowled. She finished with ridiculous figures of 4-8 from her 3 overs!
Bush finished on 256 (86-6) so Southgate won the match by a comprehensive 54 runs.
Batter of the Match - Fran Fell
Bowler of the Match - Geethika Ayomi
Player of the Match - Maddie Unthank
In our first season it is a monumental achievement to be crowned Middlesex softball champions. Congratulations to the 8 who played in the final, but lots of players have played for the team in our debut season and I’d like to thank each of them for playing their part – Soph Meyer, Pooja Patel, Antonia Titizoglu, Nat Prout, Mareeni Raymond, Yo Mackie, Mel Rivera Caceres, Shikhaa Gupta, Dinesha Maddu, Laura Klasupa & Selena Kularatne thank you all!
Up The Gate 💜🖤🩵 !