The bank holiday weekend saw a lot of cricket played across the Sunrisers region, with matches on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The British weather did mean that some of our counties had to abandon play, but overall some great matches with 20 of our senior and academy players in action for their counties.
Essex
Essex got their 50 over campaign underway on Saturday, with 7 Sunrisers in the team to take on Kent, Kelly Castle, Jo Gardner, Alice MacLeod, Katie Midwood, Hayley Brown (Acad), Scarlett Hughes (Acad) and Esmae MacGregor (Acad). Essex bowled Kent out in their 47th over for 203, Sunrisers taking all of the wickets for Essex; Gardner and MacGregor taking 3 each, MacLeod with 2 and Castle Midwood with one a piece. Essex started their chase well, with MacLeod putting on 28 runs in her opening before out LBW and Castle adding 27 to the score, but Kent bowled Essex out in their 40th over for 157, winning by 46 runs.
Essex were back in T20 action on Monday against Surrey in the T20 County Championship, with 8 Sunrisers in the team for the double header, Jo Gardner returning to Warwickshire for the T20 championship and Jess Olorenshaw (Acad) and Jasmine Westley (Acad) into the Essex T20 squad. Despite some great contributions from the Sunrisers, Hughes with 46, Olorenshaw with 21 and wickets from Castle, MacGregor and Midwood, Essex lost both matches to Surrey; losing the first match by 15 runs and the second by 4 wickets.
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire also began their one day matches, with a match against Norfolk. Isabella Routledge (Acad) was in action for Cambridgeshire. A close run match saw Routledge score 56 and take 2 wickets, but Norfolk won the match by one run on the last ball.
Cambridgeshire then took on Suffolk in the T20 championship. Despite Routledge taking a wicket in the first match and scoring a valuable 76 in the second match, it was not enough to overcome Suffolk, who took the win by 31 runs in the first match and 1 run in the second.
Middlesex v Kent
Middlesex travelled to Kent for their T20 championship matches. Middlesex fielding 6 Sunrisers, Amara Carr, Naomi Dattani, Cordelia Griffith, Gayatri Gole, Sonali Patel and Katie Wolfe, and Kent fielding Sunrisers player Grace Scrivens.
Middlesex fielded first in the opening match, Gole taking 2 wickets and Patel taking a catch in the field. Middlesex started well with the bat, Griffith top scoring with 60 and useful contributions of 23 and 21 from Gole and Dattani respectively. However Kent took regular wickets, with Scrivens taking 2 wickets in her 3 overs for only 10 runs, and Kent won the first match by 20 runs.
The second match saw Middlesex batting first. Griffith (37), Carr (36) and Gole (19*) all putting in some useful contributions, with Kent bowling Middlesex out in the 19th over for 131. Gole and Patel took the 3 wickets to fall for Kent, Wolfe also taking a catch in the field, but Kent got over the line with 2 balls to spare, winning by 7 wickets.
Hertfordshire
Elsa Barnfather (Acad) was in action for Hertfordshire’s match against Huntingdonshire. Hertfordshire restricted Huntingdonshire to 36 all out, with Barnfather hitting 17* in pursuit of the target, Hertfordshire winning by 10 wickets.
The bank holiday rain then hit and the second match was abandoned.
Warwickshire v Berkshire
This T20 double header was due to feature 2 Sunrisers on opposing teams, Gardner for Warwickshire and Mia Rogers for Berkshire.
Unfortunately, no play was possible as rain intervened. Both matches being abandoned with a ball bowled.
A great weekend of cricket around the region and some fine performances from our Sunrisers. #Riseup