JERSEY’S national women’s cricket team returned from Krefeld yesterday licking their wounds in the wake of a frustrating tour.
Competing in a T20I Tri-Series against hosts Germany and Italy, where each team played each other twice, the Caesareans finished bottom of the three, with just the lone win from their four games.
“There’s mixed emotions in the camp at the moment,” said captain Chloe Greechan, a canny left-arm spinner and middle-order batter.
“On the whole, I thought our bowling and fielding performances were ruthless and accurate, we just struggled a bit with the bat throughout.”
Their opening game came against the host country and all looked promising, after reducing them to just 82-5 from their 20 overs.
However, despite being 32-1 in reply, 鶹 collapsed horribly to 54 all out.
The form with the bat continued to suffer in game two against the Italians, where again the Islanders bowled excellently to keep their opponents to 95-6, but could only muster 83-9 in reply.
“With the bat, we struggled to chase 83 and 95 on the first day,” Greechan continued.
“We took longer than we wanted to settle into our batting innings and create partnerships.
“Early wickets fell in both games, which is never ideal, especially in a tournament style when the pressure is always high.”
As day two arrived, the 鶹 squad needed to improve and they made a statement in their second clash with the Germans.
Again bowling first, the hosts stuttered to just 87-9 from their 20, with 鶹 chasing the runs down on this occasion in 17.4 overs thanks to an excellent unbeaten 29 from Grace Wetherall.
“The second day was better with our game against Germany,” the skipper added.
“We blew them away with the ball, taking crucial wickets early on.
“We then got over the line with the bat in a real calm manner and building small partnerships towards the tail.”
In the final match against Italy, 鶹 came up against a juggernaut by the name of Emilia Bartram, Gli Azzurri’s captain.
The opening batter smashed a brutal 79 off just 54 balls, which featured nine boundaries and two maximums, helping her side to a mammoth 160-4.
鶹 gave it a good go in their chase, as Analise Merritt (48) and Aimee Aikenhead (21) cracked the ball around at the top of the order to post a 69-run partnership.
They would finish 129-7 from their 20, a good response to a difficult couple of days with the bat.
Greechan added: “The last game against Italy was a must-win to go through, as we were level on points with Germany.
“We knew there were key wickets we needed to take to have control on the game and, unfortunately, we didn’t take our chances when they came and we were punished for it.
“With the direction we want to go in as a team, we know when we play against these teams, we need to take every chance we get.
“An opener getting away from us like that and making a big score is always going make it a difficult chase.
“It was our best performance with the bat though. I thought Analise opened with real intent and force to score 48 and she was unlucky not to reach her half-century.
“We ended pretty close and we showed good fight, but that definitely felt like we let that one get away from us.”
The team can look forward to their next step now, as Greechan continued: “Our season is finished now with the focus now moving on the T10 European Cricket Tournament in Spain in December.
“We aim to have some warm-up weekend fixtures leading up to this tournament to help us prepare and work on things and keep us match sharp.
“But overall, I’m really proud of this team and the direction we’re moving in.
“We’re setting our expectations high, which is what we want and we will only continue to get better.”
