Back-to-back league wins for Ashford's women

Ashford beat Streatham & Marlborough by 4 wickets

Surrey Women’s Cricket League, Division 1,4 th July 2021
Streatham & Marlborough 121-6 (Susan Little 47, Ali McCreedy 7-0-31-4)
Ashford 122-6 (Rhianna Southby 84*, Kate Murray 7-0-17-2)

Ashford’s resurgence continued this weekend, with a fine all round performance at
Streatham & Marlborough, despite still only fielding 10 players. The hosts were asked to
bat first, and made a very slow start, thanks to accurate opening spells from Elize Brown
and Jenny Tippell. Even once the bats began to settle in they still struggled to score, with
Ashford giving nothing away in the field. Wickets, however, were also elusive, and it wasn’t
until the twelfth over that the breakthrough came, Elize Brown clinging on to a catch off Ali
McCreedy. Runs continued to be hard to come by, thanks to good spells from Gayatri
Sunkersett and Beth Jefferies, and the whole Ashford team played their part in the field.
Amy Evans made countless stops close to the wicket, Rhianna Southby was kept busy,
and the youngsters Mahnoor Amin and Krishna Rathod looked secure, Rathod showing
great improvement already since the start of the season. With fewer than 50 on the board
at the halfway mark, Ashford were in the driving seat, and when McCreedy switched ends
for a second spell, the wickets began to come too, one bowled, then an attempt to clear
the covers finding the safe hands of Southby. Brown was finally rewarded with an lbw, then
very sharp reactions by Katie Butler ensured that she stumped Susan Little, who had
anchored the innings with 47. That gave McCreedy her fourth wicket of the day, and in
doing so she became only the second Ashford player to complete the all round double of
1000 runs and 100 wickets in league cricket, Jenny Tippell having already gone on to pass
200 wickets. Tippell herself took the final wicket of the innings, conceding only 4 runs from
her four overs.

Chasing 122 for victory from their 35 overs, Ashford were out of the blocks quickly, despite
losing a couple of early wickets, with Rhianna Southby and Jenny Tippell cracking the ball
to all parts. Going at around 5 runs an over, the pair had added 54 when Tippell was
bowled, and two more wickets fell with the target still 48 runs away. Ali McCreedy was next
in, and for about eight overs managed to play Jack Leach to Southby’s Ben Stokes, as
they closed in on their objective. Trying to get back for a second run, McCreedy was short
of her ground, and it fell to 14 year old Krishna Rathod to take on the responsibility of
staying with Southby. Although still well ahead of the required run rate, Southby decided
the time had come to cut loose, and in no time she had doubled her boundary count to ten,
finishing unbeaten on 84 from only 79 balls, and taking Ashford to a well deserved win.
So many positives for Ashford this week, although still plenty to work on. Two wins have
moved them up the league table, and they will hope to continue that progress in the next
few games, starting with the visit of Twickenham to Short Lane on Sunday.