Lancashire Girls U19 - Match 1 Report

Lancashire Girls U19s in Dubai

Match 1 : Lancashire vs Sussex. Report by Jenny Laycock Women & Girls CDO.

After a long flight and even longer drive from the airport to the ground we arrived to sunshine and a nice set of apartments. We headed off for a short training session to get the girls used to the pink balls and the heat.

Day 2 in Dubai equalled game day vs Sussex. We knew it was a going to be a tough game and our inexperience with the pink ball and being outside in February showed in the first few overs. Our spinners Sophie McArdle and Nalisha Patel started to slow the run rate and this brought our first wicket LBW to Patel, followed shortly by 2 wickets for McArdle. The runs flowed steadily and our fielding was not at its best, however after being 62 for 0 off 8 we restricted Sussex to 245 for 7 off 40. Bumika Doshi picked up 3 wickets at the end to slow the final overs. Mention to Georgia Adams from Sussex who scored an excellent 59.

The girls walked out to bat under the shadow of the rest stands at the test ground. We lost early wickets and we struggled to build partnerships. Emma Lamb, Hayley Martinus and Jess Couser all got starts but couldn't get us close enough. A great partnership in the late overs saw Nalisha Patel and Hannah Till put on 46 with Nalisha top scoring on 32.

A good learning experience for all the girls especially to play on that standard of wicket and outfield at Zayed Cricket Stadium.

Players' match experiences

Hayley Martinus - I thought for our first game I got a lot out of it and I'm sure the rest of the girls did. I think we can improve in places over the week but as a team we pulled together and kept going even when we were all feeling tired. Was a brilliant start to the tournament and I can't wait for the rest of the games to take more out of them.

Bhumika Doshi - From this game I learnt that if the ball is swinging too much, there would be a option of holding the seam crossed seamed for the bowlers. Also improvements in the field could be made, there were too many mis-fields, a couple of catches were dropped; these could have influenced the game if the chances were taken. When it came to batting the pressure of the big score changed the batting order, this could mean batters moving up the order when not comfortable.

Some photos from the tour available on the right in Image gallery.