Last Saturday 10th June saw the West Ladies Cricket Team wrap up the inaugural Creditwest North Cyprus match with a comfortable win over their East rivals.
Val Maskell, East’s captain, won the toss and put the West into bat hoping for more luck than the previous week at the Pia Bella Stadium. She had said her team were determined to level the series by winning the second match.
West’s Captain Gina Mapp opened with Iranian, Ayttis Lilianna putting on a very credible 46 runs in the first 6 overs. Norwegian, Rannveig Ystaas then came to the crease with Steph Routledge and hammered 65 runs, their only blemish when Routledge was too slow in regaining her ground after an aborted run which cost the pair 5 runs. The East’s bowlers plugged away but mostly found wickets elusive, only Filipino, Gloria Garcia having any success going for 23 from her 3 overs. The West scored a total of 111 runs, which cricket lovers will know is referred to as a ‘Nelson’. The term made famous by the legendary England Umpire David Sheppard always standing on one leg when this score was reached.
The East set about the required run rate of 9.33/overs with Linda Hurley and Gloria Garcia reaching 31 after 3 overs and the crowd sensed a dramatic fight to the winning line. However, for their 4th over, Mapp bowled a very tight line and they could only manage 1 run, Further low scoring overs followed, with Ystaas’s over again going for only 1. Despite the batsmen’s best efforts they had only scored 40 runs at the half way point of their side’s innings. In other games it would have been a decent total, but they were facing a massive task.
Lynn Holman and Val Maskell now faced getting 12/overs, tough at any time, but against the strength of their opposition’s bowling it would require something special. They attacked from the first ball and in any other circumstances made good progress reaching 16 from their first two overs, but the required scoring rate continued to grow and with 24 balls remaining had become 2.33/balls. Their considerable experience told them they had nothing to lose, Holman led the charge throwing caution to the wind, looking for big shots off every ball, but each time she was out 5 runs were deducted and the task became harder, with 12 balls left the required rate had risen to 3.75/balls. A daunting figure in any form of cricket. In the final over bowled by Mapp 2 more wickets fell and the East finished losing by 42 runs.
Afterwards, TRNC captain Gina Mapp congratulated everyone on their outstanding season and looked forward to the return of Ladies cricket in September after the summer break.
For more information please call Gina on 0533 833 2069.
