Apperley CC played a home match versus last years finalists Plymouth CC in the last 16 of the T20 vitality U15’s national cup. It was a great achievement by the ground staff to even get the game on after the weather on Saturday evening.

Plymouth won the toss and put Apperley in to bat.

Lily Rutt and Millie Downey opened the batting for the home team and started steadily. Millie played a shot to the offside and the girls decided to run a very ambitious 2nd run, Lily barely made it half way back to the non strikers end before getting run out. Megan Ahearne then came in at 3 and herself and Millie batted together until the 13th over where Millie decided to open out but was unfortunately bowled out for 18. Seren Radcliffe then came in and herself and Megan started scoring freely and got Apperley to 71 before Seren was caught going for an aggressive shot in the 17th over. Lucy Bull then joined Megan in the middle and the two girls found their stride and were hitting regular boundaries. Megan hit a beautiful cover drive to bring up her 50 after 48 balls. Unfortunately she was bowled in the next over. Sophie Rayer came in and scored a quick 7 off 4 balls and Lucy scored a fantastic 25 off 11 balls with her highlight being a text book shot through midwicket for 4. Apperley ended on 121 off 20 overs. Plymouth bowled exceptionally well with only 1 wide and 4 no balls.

Plymouth then came out to bat in then glorious sunshine. They made a steady start before they too went for an ambitious run, some great fielding from Lily Rutt saw Maggie Haffenden run out for 6. Megan Hayward then came out at 3 to join the very impressive Beth Hall. Megan Ahearne then pulled off an unbelievable caught and bowled to remove Hayward to make in 25/2 off 5 overs. Plymouth were just above the run rate at this point however Megan Ahearne then bowled Chloe Nicholson to make it 34/3 off 6 overs. Sophie Rayer was keeping bowling tight from the chapel end which was putting pressure on the Plymouth batters. Kat Frost who earlier bowled superbly then came in to join Beth Hall. Lucy Bull replaced Sophie from the chapel end and bowled her first 3 overs for only 8 runs. Seren Radcliffe then replaced Megan at the Church End and immediately made an impact, Kat Frost played a very powerful square cut only to find Lily Rutt fielding there and took a “worldy” of a catch. Lily’s dad quickly took credit for the catch claiming it was from the fielding practice with him in the back garden!! Lucy Bull continued the impressive bowling and got the prize wicket of Beth Hall by bowling her in the 14th over when the score was 73/5. Apperley were then sensing victory and continued joining the dots and putting pressure on the batters. Captain Sophie Rayer then brought herself back on and bowled very sharply and quickly getting the last two wickets. Plymouth ended up 18 runs short. Apperley’s Bowling was also very impressive conceding only 4 wides in the 19.5 overs. Amelie Matthews was excellent once again behind the stumps conceding only 2 byes. The whole team contributed in an excellent fielding performance, Rona Mackenzie and Rosie Reynolds were instrumental in keeping the visitors total down to 103.

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Apperley now face Newport CC at Apperley on 23rd July @ 2pm.