4th Place for the Welsh Girls in Abu Dhabi

26th February 2013 | Mallory Gray

While MCC were defeating Sussex at the Zayed Stadium, the Wales U19s were facing Devon on the adjoining Zayed Nursery Ground, as they contested for third place.

Devon elected to bat on the hottest day of the tournament so far 34 degrees Celsius. The Devon openers, Amara Carr (70) and Aylish Cranstone (24) batted solidly at the start putting on 65 for the first wicket off 14 overs. Wales opened the bowling with Gwenan Davies and Nicole Reid, the 15 year old leg spinner who bowled well and was unlucky not to take a wicket. Wales pegged Devon back during the middle overs with good spells from Isobel Day (8-1-22-0), Lauren Parfitt (8-0-35-1) and Rebecca Struthers (8-0-34-1). As the innings progressed the heat increased and some of the Welsh girls became affected by dehydration. They continued to battle hard and managed to keep Devon down to 185 for 4 off 40 overs which was going to be a big ask to chase with a number of injuries that were niggling the Welsh girls after an intense schedule.

In reply Cricket Wales lost their first 3 batters for 0 with the total after 4 overs at 4-3. Ellie Hopkins (72*) saved the Welsh team from a total batting collapse with a great knock including five 4’s. Ellie was supported by Rebecca Struthers (27) but the tail enders could not prevent the inevitable – Cricket Wales running out of overs with a total of 147, falling short by 38 runs. Devon’s best bowlers were Rebecca Bertrand (3-19) and Lydia Harris (3-14).

Wales finished fourth overall out of the eight teams and there were some excellent individual and team performances over the four games, the tournament in general was a great success and had aided the development of the players.  Behaviour, team spirit and effort shown by the girls were all faultless throughout the tournament.