Great tour Dutch Lionesses U13 in Malvern UK

For many of the players it was their second appearance at the Festival having played the previous year in the tournament held at The Downs. This time, the girls had the honour of playing their games on the 1st XI wicket at the College itself.

Dag 1

The Festival started with a 35-over game against Cricket East, a mixture of two counties (Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire). The girls lost the toss and were put in to bat on a damp wicket following some early morning rain. The girls batted sensibly in a format that was new to many of them, and a huge six from Philippine was amongst the highlights in an innings of 24. Philippine was excellently supported by Milou (28), Donna (19) and Robbi (16). The Lionesses finished on a defendable score of 133.

After lunch, the bowling attack took it to Cricket East, however an opening partnership of 50 put Cricket East on the front foot. A flurry of wickets from the Dutch then tilted the game towards the Lionesses and a close finish ensued however the girls eventually lost by three wickets after a couple of chances weren’t capitalised on in the last few overs and a resilient eigth wicket partnership from Cricket East. Three wickets from Ashmeet and a brace of wickets from Mishika were amongst the highlights with Milou and Anvika taking the other wickets.

Day 2

Day two involved two T20 games against teams from First Class County Gloucestershire. Having lost the toss for the second game in a row, the Lionesses were put in to bat. Donna’s 33 not out helped get the Lionesses to a respectable 85 for 6 against a tough and accurate bowling attack. It was an excellent innings and Donna showed her toughness returning to bat despite retiring hurt earlier with a hand injury.

Again, the Lionesses started off with some accurate bowling and kept the pressure on the Gloucestershire top order. Milou with 3 for 14 and Robbi with 2 for 6 were the pick of the bowlers, bowling quickly and with great accuracy, as Gloucestershire reached their target for the loss of three wickets.

The second game of the day was against Gloucestershire’s second team. This time the Lionesses won the toss and put Gloucestershire in to bat. Milou again showed her class taking 2 for 8 off her four overs and was brilliantly supported by Mishika, Ashmeet, Robbie and Philippine as Gloucestershire were limited to 111 off their 20 overs.

The Lionesses looked well on their way to victory with Donna (16) and Philippine (15) batting well however the run out of Donna triggered a middle order collapse and the Lionesses were all out for 81 with well over nine overs left of the innings.

Day 3

The final day saw the Lionesses playing against Norfolk, alongside Northamptonshire the strongest team at the festival. Despite a good bowling display, there were a few errors in the field and the Lionesses also faced up to the player of the tournament who scored a century in Norfolk’s total of 296 off their allotted overs. Despite the big hitting, it was a good experience for the girls and they didnt back down from the challenge with three wickets for Milou and two each for Robbi, Isa and Ashmeet.

The total proved too much for the Lionesses however they posted a respectable score of 121 which would have been a good score against any other opposition and with some better fielding in the Norfolk innings then it would have been a very close game all around. Facing a team of the quality of Norfolk was a great experience for the girls and gives them an insight in to some of the areas of the game that they can focus on developing but they can also be proud of how they kept on going until the end. Ashmeet top scored with 32 with Preetal, Mishika and Anvika also batting well.

Overall the Festival was a success, with a little bit more experience there were three games that the girls could definitely have won and the fourth game against Norfolk gave the girls a good insight into power hitting and the importance of fielding. The girls have progressed well since the previous year and we look forward to experiencing the Festival again in the future!

Dutch Player of the tournament: Donna Boeijinga

Umpires Champagne Moment: Ashmeet Kaur

Spirit of Cricket Award: Philippine Voogd