As lose to Sturt in Semi

The A grade put up a fighting effort against current premier's Sturt. 

They won the toss and batted at Park 25 No 1. We held them to 183 – they were expecting 230-240.  We got International Player of the Year Shelley Nitchke early with Marg Hay bowling her around her legs for 15 (last time she played against us she scored 198!!).  The Blues ground out their runs, setting up their innings with 41 and 43 run partnerships for the second and third wickets, to be 3/111 in the 28^th over.  We were able to pet them back to bowl them out in the 48^th over.  Kamani took the figures with 4/30 off six overs and Courtney "cleaned up the tail" to finish with 3/28.

Rachael Greenshields continued her good batting of recent weeks with 17 (PB for the season) but this time we could not build the partnerships around her.  Dayna (12) put on 25 second wicket was the best.

Kylie batted well for 9 and Courtney finished 5 no.  We batted into the 44^th over.

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UP COMING EVENTS:

Don't forget our end of season presentation dinner next Saturday evening (March 25) at the clubrooms with the presentation of batting, bowling, fielding awards as well as the Player of the Year and THE DROPKICK AND DUCK AWARDS.

The Bradman medal for the best player in A grade will be held at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday 23rd March. SACA Umpires votes for individual awards in Women's grades will also be announced.  Full voting will be published here as soon as they are known.

Tuesday March 29 sees the presentation of these awards to junior players and Women's C grade.  Powerade Junior Cricketers of the Round have been invited to this ceremony.

Indoor cricket starts in Term 2 – if you are interested please contact Kempey.  We are looking at two teams this year.  We play Monday evenings at Morphett Vale ICA.

STATE INDOOR NEWS:

We have five (out of 10) Southern players in the SA Under 18 Indoor cricket team playing in Melbourne in July.  They are Jess O'Reilly, Courtney Brideson, Cara Allen, Rachael Greenshields and Kylie Rattray.

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Bs and Cs end on a winning note Amy PB in Cs As finish fourth

The Bs and Cs finished the season on a winning note with 9 and 14 run wins respectively.

The Bs were bolstered by the inclusion of Shari, Nuggett, Donna and Courtney to give them a game leading into next week's finals.

We batted first at Bice and were in early trouble being 4/27 in the 12^th over.  Kayla Staszuk (10) and Brandi Ongley (14) put on 15 and were well supported by Jacinta who made 7.  We batted well into our overs (38) to score 80.

West Torrens started well scoring 22 off the first 13 without losing a wicket  - but could not establish a match winning stand as we took wickets at regular intervals to bowl them out nine runs short.  Our stumbling block was former team mate Jade Ambler who carried her bat for 26 no.  Courtney Brideson took "the figures" with 2/7 off 8 overs – but Brandi took the key wicket of Brooke Harris, Cara Allen who took state Under 15 Hayley Smith and Robyn who bowled ex- Stingray Alex Daly.

Many thanks to Marg Hay who sub fielded.

The Cs registered their sixth win for the year with very good performance over Northern.

Northern batted first and scored 29 off the first seven overs before Ellie Jamieson took the first wicket.  Amy had one soon after to have them 2/42 off nine overs.  We bowled accurately and fielded well to hold them to 26 more runs off their remaining  12 overs.  Kelly Armstrong went for six off her four overs and Hannah and Kayla bowled well "at the death" to only concede seven runs off the last four overs.

 Our batting was dominated by Amy White who scored a PB of 30 (retired).  She was well supported by Kelly Armstrong (19 - after 30 against Northern earlier in the season) and fourth gamer Hannah Baker.  Hannah continued her good form with a score of 10 in consecutive innings.

The Cs finished one game out of the four.

We have confirmed that the A grade finished FOURTH.  We will play Sturt in a 1 v 4 semi final this Saturday.  It will be an 11.50 start and the venue will be confirmed Tuesday.

A GRADE SAFE IN THE FINALS - TIANNA GOLDEN ARM!!! in the Cs

Both the As and Cs had wins in the second last round of the season.  For the As it secured us a spot in the final four (we have a bye next week – but a safer buffer).  For the Cs the win was great but other results did not go our way.  In the Kensington / Northern game the Northern win made them safe.  So it will take a miracle win by Port over Sturt for us to make it.  (Port Cs have forfeited their last two games!)

 

At the time of going to print we sit second on the A grade table with (90.63) points.

 

However contenders for the other finals spots all play next with many scenarios possible.  The big part of the weekend's games was that we won our game very well.

 

We made a club record 8/282 and dismissed Tea Tree Gully for 91.  We earned 19.22 points.

 

Our win was set up by a 40 run first wicket stand between Tahlia (26) and Rachael (15) to set the base for a record 140 run fifth wicket stand between Jess O'Reilly (64) and Marg Hay (60).  The eight wicket stand of  47* between Kamani (32 no) and Courtney )11no put the cream on the cake.  The highlight of Kamani's innings was some lusty hitting off state rep Tamara Clapton 26 off two overs including a six off the last ball of the innings.

 

Donna Clark took a wicket with her second ball to put the Gullies on the back foot from the start, Marg Hay took the prize wicket of Clapton in the fourth over and we took wickets at regular intervals to bowl them out for 91.

 

We await the results of games next week to determine our final position.

 

 

Highlights from the A grade game

 

Ø      The win puts us in the finals for the first time in our second season in A grade

Ø      8/282 was our highest score for our A grade career

Ø      Marg Hay's 60 was her second 50 + score in a row after a PB of 72 last week

Ø      The Jess O'Reilly / Marg Hay 140 run stand was the highest for ANY WICKET in the clubs history (123  Shari Bray / Rachael Greenshields first wicket v Kensington T20 2008-9 B grade) – this is also the highest 5^th wicket partnership FOR ANY A GRADE side this season (SACA source)

Ø      It was our second 100 partnership for the season after Jess and Dayna made 100 against Port in the second innings

Ø      The win by 191 runs was the biggest in our history in A grade

Ø      It was over our arch rivals Tea Tree Gully who came into A grade at the same time as us two seasons ago.

 

The Bs battled hard again batting well into the 36^th of our allocated 40 overs.  Jess Vincent again was the mainstay with a 16 over stay – Nicky Moyle (on loan from the C grade) provided plenty of support – batting 25 overs. Port made 183 with Linda Anderson taking 3/22.

 

The Cs had their fifth win for the year defending 87.  Kayla McGrath scored a PB 32 (retired) receiving great support from third gamer Hannah Baker (11) and Hannah Armstrong (14).

 

The Sturt openers started well with 56 off the first ten overs.  But the drinks break saw an amazing collapse losing EIGHT WICKETS FOR EIGHT RUNS to be all out for 64.

 

The bowling combination of Nicky Koritsa and Tianna Muirhead sparked the collapse with Tianna taking three wickets in five balls to end with career best figures of 4/12.

 

The Sturt girls were pressured by some very good fielding – Kayla McGrath three catches, Kelly Armstrong one and Nicky Koritsa one catch and run out.

 

Well done team!

 

Stop press:

*** MARG JUDE IS STILL AVERAGING OVER 100 FOR THE SEASON (120 RUNS FOR ONCE OUT!!!)

 

 

The club passes on their condolences to the Moyle family for their loss last weekend.  The B graders all wore a black arm band as a mark of respect and conducted a minutes silence before the game.