Year 8 Girls Cricket State Runners Up

SCHOOL SPORT VICTORIA – STATE FINALS

Year 8 Girls Cricket

On Thursday 23 November, the Year 8 Girls cricket team travelled to Balwyn to compete in the SSV State Cricket Finals. In a thrilling day of cricket, they narrowly missed out on taking home the State Title.

State Semi-Final

The first match was the State Semi-Final and was played against Glen Waverley College, with the winner progressing to the State Final later that day. Our captain, Layla O’Brien, won the toss and elected to bowl. This was an opportunity for the girls to set the tone for the day. Glen Waverley however had other ideas as they started their innings with a flurry of runs, and were looking very good at 0/24 after just 3 overs. Madi White then effected a brilliant direct hit run out to help put the brakes on the scoring. The wickets then started to fall at consistent points in the match which prevented Glen Waverley from amassing a big score.

Madi White (2/8), Rania Jackson-Leahy (1/4), Madi Morrison (1/11), Layla O’Brien (1/19) and Dempsey McDonnell (1/20) were the wicket-takers with the ball as Glen Waverley finished with a healthy total of 7/96.

The run chase started with Madi White (5) and Madi Morrison (9*) facing some express and accurate bowling. However, they were brilliant with their ability to get a number of balls away for some valuable early runs, as well as taking advantage of any byes that they could sneak. The girls slowly made inroads into the total and were pacing themselves well, enabling the team enough time to make the runs required. Brilliant middle and late order batting and running between the wickets by Dempsey McDonnell (6), Zoe Reynolds (9*), Lexi Fennell (11), Chella Fitzgerald (11) and Stephanie Ingham (5) saw the girls reach the total (5/97) in a thrilling finish with just 8 balls to spare. It was a well-deserved victory, and a terrific result for the team, and it also gained them a spot in the SSV State Final

State Final

The State Final was played against Emmanuel College, Warrnambool. Emmanuel had rolled their opposition in Round 1 in less than 20 overs, so the girls knew that they were up against some tough competition. This time around however Layla lost the toss, and the girls were sent into bat. It was soon obvious that Emmanuel’s bowling attack was efficient, fast and accurate. Dempsey (6), Madi White (3) and Madi Morrison (3) took the brunt of the early bowling. Chella Fitzgerald (11) then hit the boundary a couple of times as well as initiating some clever running with Lexie (3) to try and get as many runs as they could on the board. The girls finished on 8/42 after just 10.2 overs. It wasn’t a big total, but it was enough to at least try to defend with the ball if they could get some early wickets.

Dempsey (1/11) started the bowling innings with a maiden, and then Madi White (2/8) backed that up with a very tight over, so the girls knew that wickets were now important. Madi White then managed her second direct-hit runout for the day to get the first wicket of the innings, and from then on things started to happen.

Dempsey took a great catch, another run out was effected by Madi White while Steph Ingham and Chella Fitzgerald took two incredible catches to put the girls right in the game as Emmanuel started to panic. Maddi Morrison (1/9) and Layla O’Brien (0/9) were also keeping it tight with the ball, as the pressure started to build.

Emmanuel went from cruising to chaos as the wickets kept falling to 7/40 within 9 overs. With plenty of overs left, the game scenario tightened up as Emmanuel needed 2 runs and CMC needed 1 wicket. Emmanuel drew level as they took another panicked single, but the match was clearly still up for grabs. Madi White once again took the ball and a lofted miss-hit went high in the air … the diving catching attempt from Dempsey was brilliant, but alas she was agonisingly short of taking an absolute screamer. Emmanuel scurried through for another single and hence the winning run was scored.

It was an exciting end to a terrific match. For the girls to come within centimetres of winning a State Title with a small total to defend was incredible. Congratulations girls on what is still an amazing result, State Runners Up is very impressive.

Thanks to Finnegan Millar and James Balic for scoring and umpiring on the day. Thanks also to Miss Speed for her encouragement and support throughout the competition.

TEAM: Zoe Reynolds, Chella Fitzgerald, Stephanie Ingram, Lexie Fennell, Dempsey McDonnell, Rania Jackson-Leahy, Mrs Maree Pearce (Coach), Madi Morrison, Madeline White, Layla O’Brien, Eden Howes, Grace Clark