Scots women bow to Devon supremacy
On what turned out to be a barmy summer's day in Edinburgh (August 1), after recent spells of heavy rain and grey skies, the Scotland Wildcats entertained Devon at Watsonian CC’s Myreside ground. Despite unhelpful weather conditions, groundsman Willie Morton produced an excellent cricket wicket and, once Devon’s skipper had won the toss, she decided to bowl first.
A very steady opening partnership between Kathryn White and Charlotte Bascombe saw the home side past the 50 mark inside the first 20 overs, despite White managing to play a leading edge onto the side of her jaw. Painful, but unperturbed. White was the second to fall having just failed to complete her half century. Prior to her departure, opening partner Bascombe, in an effort to push the scoring rate upwards, had advanced down the wicket to Piddock only to be stumped very neatly by Carr.
New pair Kari Anderson and ‘live-wire’ Leigh Kasperek set about building on the foundation of the opening pair and, together, they took the score past the150 mark before a rush of blood from Kasperek, attempting a non-existent run, saw her comfortably stranded mid-wickets for a very well struck 41 – which should have advanced past a half century had she been able to control her enthusiasm! Once skipper Anderson was caught driving for a well-earned 30 in the 47th over, the rest of the Wildcats' batting line-up either threw their wickets awaiting attempting to add to the total or were dismissed by Devon’s Ansley or Knight, the former finishing with four wickets to her name.
If Scotland had added another 20 or 30 runs to the total, or topped the 200 mark on what was a very even-paced wicket, it would have given their bowlers a bit more to play with against a strong Devon batting line-up. Sadly, with a couple of early catches going down - proving once move the old, old adage ‘catches win matches’ - and after Bowden and Miles had been removed by Anderson and Urquhart respectively with the Devon score in the early 50s, opener Knight and keeper Carr set about the Wildcats’ bowling with consummate ease, Carr falling late on lbw to Haggo for 49, Knight hitting the winning runs to complete her century.
With the ECB Twenty20 Competition the previous week, and the European Championships in Dublin a week ahead, skipper Kari Anderson was in a disappointed but philosophical frame of mind when she said in her post-match chat: “Overall we performed much better today with the bat than in Leamington last week, and our bowlers are starting to hit the right areas. Consistency is the name of the game for us now. Ground fielding continues to frustrate me as people are not backing themselves to perform. Improvements are certainly starting to show through, especially with youngsters like Leigh Kasperek and Sam Haggo, so we are certainly making progress as a squad.
Next stop Edinburgh Airport, en route to Dublin!
Short scores: Scotland 169 all out (50 overs, K White 48, L Kasperek 41, K Anderson 30, G Ansley 4-25); Devon 171-3 (44.1 overs, H Knight 100*, A Carr 49*)
