Ashford women extend win streak

Ashford beat Streatham & Marlborough by 8 wickets
Surrey Women’s Cricket League, 18th July 2021

Streatham & Marlborough 140-7
(Verity Quade 44, Gayatri Sunkersett & Ambreen Nawaz both 3-0-9-1)
Ashford 141-2 (Katie Butler 46*, Annabel Leech 3-0-16-1)

With the temperature climbing above 31 degrees on easily the hottest day of the year, it
came as no surprise when the visitors won the toss, that they invited Ashford to bowl first.
Although it was not Ashford’s finest performance in the field, with several missed chances
and some untidy fielding, wickets came steadily. Sensibly, Ashford captain Jenny Tippell
used her bowlers in short spells, and the wickets were spread out amongst them.

Lakeesha Walia got the first, and Gayatri Sunkersett picked one up, with Ambreen Nawaz
holding on to the catch. Nawaz was soon in the action again, with an lbw, then it was the
turn of Elize Brown. The ball was hit hard, just forward of point, where Tippell dived to her
right, clinging on to the ball with one hand to take a stunning catch. Fourteen year old
Krishna Rathod has improved with almost every game she has played, and thoroughly
deserved her first league wicket, bowling Verity Quade, who had batted for almost 30
overs for a valuable 44. Tippell took the sixth wicket, then finished things off in style with
another exceptional piece of fielding. With the batter trying to scramble another single off
the last ball, Tippell picked it up on the run and threw down the stumps, leaving her
stranded by several yards.

Chasing 141 for a fourth win in as many weeks, Gill Bonham and Amy Evans got Ashford
off to a brisk start. They had reached 36 when Evans fell in the 6th over, to be replaced by
Katie Butler, who carried on in the same style as her unbeaten hundred in the previous
game. Bonham made 27 before she was bowled with the score on 63, which brought
Jenny Tippell in to join Butler. They were in no mood to hang around, and took just ten
overs to score the remaining 75 runs required, hitting eleven boundaries between them,
Butler finishing on 46 and Tippell on 33.

The squad is the same, but this is a different Ashford side which started the season so
poorly, losing their first 4 games. The hard work put into training, under the guidance of
Jim Berressem, is really paying off, and each week players step up to play key roles.
Recognition has come from the Surrey Women’s Cricket League, with Lakeesha Walia and
Elize Brown invited to play for their representative side, selected from all the clubs taking
part. With three league games to go, Ashford will be looking to keep up this momentum
and finish strongly, with a top two finish still in their sights.