U12A impress in first T20 but narrowly lose to Hurst

The U12A team took on Hurstpierpoint U13B team on a scorcher of a day at Hurst.

Hurst won the toss and elected to bowl first. Roedean stepped to the crease of their first 20 over match, which was very exciting! Sorcha and Bella opened the batting and, after a few extras early on, a straight delivery took Sorcha's middle stump and we were one down. Lili, in at 3, received a pearl of a delivery taking her off-stump, unlucky as she has really worked hard on her batting this term. Yasmin then came in at 4, and looked solid for a few deliveries before she was caught playing an attacking shot.

Bella and Matilda steadied the ship and batted well for the next few overs, as we begun posting a total. Bella hit some fantastic shots on the off-side, and putting away the bad balls on her legs. Matilda played some mighty shots on the leg-side and ran well between the wickets. They managed to put on a 92 run partnership and remained at the crease the entire innings, no small feat, and there was some excellent batting! Roedean set Hurstpierpoint a total of 120 runs to win in their 20 overs.

The bowlers set to work, and Maddie opened the bowling, taking a wicket in her first over. Hurst number 3 came in swinging and connected with a few very impressive shots that went for 4. Into the attack came Sorcha to take a wicket and she did just that, skittling the number 3 and giving us a lifeline in the match. The Hurst batters played some good shots and protected their wickets well, putting on some strong partnerships and eventually taking the game away from us. The bowlers bowled accurately in the last few overs, but it just wasn't enough to stem the tide and Hurstpierpoint hit the winning runs in the second last over to win by 7 wickets.