Rowledge 78/9 off 40 overs
Harold Wood 79/2 off 16.3 overs

Rowledge were outclassed by a high-quality Harold Wood side containing several Essex players, losing by 8 wickets.

Rowledge lost the toss and were put in to bat, but found scoring impossible off the highly accurate Harold Wood bowling. In particular Harold Wood's opening bowler, Hannah Courtnell, was bowling fast with swing, and accounted for two of Rowledge's top-order batsmen in her opening spell for the cost of only two runs. At the other end, Sam Harvey similarly only conceded two runs in five overs, leaving Rowledge poorly placed at 7/3 after 11 overs. Following a change of bowlers, Rowledge batsmen Pauline Baker and Katie Forward began to accumulate runs steadily, with a promising partnership of 42 runs, bringing the score up to a more respectable 49/3 after 24 overs. Unfortunately in an attempt to accelerate the scoring, Katie Forward called for a sharp single and was run out by a direct hit on the stumps. After this the scoring rate slowed down again and wickets fell regularly, particularly once Hannah Courtnell returned for her second spell and took another couple of wickets, finishing with the excellent figures of 4 wickets for 2 runs off her allotted 8 overs. Meanwhile Rowledge opener Pauline Baker remained unbeaten almost until the end of the innings, defending stoutly and scoring off the few bad balls available. Just as the team were about to congratulate her on carrying her bat, she was bowled by a steeply dipping full toss with only 3 balls remaining, for a well-deserved 28 runs.

In reply, Harold Wood's batting lineup was too strong for Rowledge to have any chance of defending their total despite a good showing in the field, including a superb catch at deep square leg by Rachel Hillman. The visitors reached their target of 79 in fewer than half their overs, losing only two wickets, with opener Bryony Butcher unbeaten on 34 at the close.


Rowledge points: 1.95 batting points, 1 bowling point


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