Apperley U13 girls claimed a memorable victory this weekend in their semi final match against Eversholt Cricket Club from Milton Keynes.

The ECB’s Girls U13 Club T20 Cup is a national competition which is initially split in to four regions. We have reached the final for our region and the last 8 clubs in England & Wales. If the girls can go on to win the final they’ll be in to Final’s Weekend – played at Neston Cricket Club in Cheshire on 18th and 19th August.

Having won the toss Apperley chose to bowl first on a scorching Sunday afternoon. Rosie Reynolds and Rona Mackenzie opened the bowling and bowled well. However, the Eversholt openers were very impressive and found plenty of gaps as they racked up 38 without loss from the first 5 overs.

It was in the 6th over, Rona’s third that the breakthrough came as she outfoxed the Eversholt opener with a perfectly flighted delivery that span off leg stump and hit the top of middle and off.

The Eversholt batters continued to push on, reaching 75-1 from 10. Apperley chose to deploy leg spin from the Chapel end all the way through the innings as Primeshie Fernando replaced Rona whose 5 overs yielded 1-30 in a good opening spell.

It was in Primeshie’s second over, the 14th of the innings that the second breakthrough came for Apperley and that was the one that really turned the tide. Eversholt had looked like posting a large total until that point, the score was 93-2.

Megan Ahearne took the third wicket before Primeshie cleaned up the rest of the team in a devastating spell of 5 overs, 1 maiden, 5 for 13. Watch all 5 of her wickets here:

The final wicket came from the last ball of the 20th over as Eversholt were bowled out for 110. Amazingly, all seven wickets were clean bowled.

It was Megan and Seren Radcliffe who were tasked with leading the chase and they were both looking solid, which was necessary especially against the one opening bowler who fired in with some pace.

Sadly Seren was stumped off a spinner which meant Rona joined Megan at the crease. The two of them put on an unbeaten stand of 82 as Apperley romped home with 5.2 overs to spare. Rona finished unbeaten on 25 and Megan smashed 71 from just 47 balls, including hitting a six to win the match – something which Sam Fitzmaurice had predicted a few balls earlier. View Megan’s boundaries here:

Massive congratulations to the girls who all played superbly:
Megan Ahearne
Seren Radcliffe
Rona Mackenzie
Ava Van Gils
Rosie Reynolds
Emily Tibbles
Eva Matthews
Primeshie Fernando
Sophie Van Gils

We now await the result of the other semi final before playing the final, also at home with a date yet to be confirmed. View the match scorecard here. View the match in full below: