MERRION VS MALAHIDE
This evening’s featured game saw a tremendous 125* from Rebecca Stokell guide Merrion to an 84 run victory over Malahide in Sprint Coatings Women’s Division One, as they began the second half of the season with a full points victory and the best possible start.
Merrion’s skipper Celeste Raack won the toss, and opened the batting with Stokell, the pair added 70 in the PowerPlay which saw Stokell dominating with 55 of those coming from her bat, 3 overs and a flurry of boundaries from the bat of Raack later, the Merrion captain was caught at cover off the bowling of Sarah Brophy for 32 with the score at that point on 101.
Rachel Delaney joined Stokell the pair rotated the strike well, with Delaney content to put away the bad ball and get Stokell back on strike. Stokell continued to find the boundary with great regularity, taking a particular shine to the leg-side towards Herbert Park, where she deposited three boundaries in one over.
It was that boundary once again where she deposited a full toss to bring up her century in the 16th over of the game, bringing the score to 180/1 and setting the pair up for a chance to put together a massive score. They stayed together until the score was 207, when Delaney chopped a Sarah Condron delivery onto her stumps for 42.
Stokell helped herself to three further boundaries in bringing the score up to the final total of 223/2 in their 20 overs.
Malahide’s reply started nicely with Amy Hunter and Caoimhe McCann adding 64 before Celeste Raack induced a big shot from Hunter, and Rachel Delaney took and excellent catch diving forward at long-on to dismiss the Malahide opener for 39. Hannah de Burgh-Whyte then bowled McCann for 34 to reduce the visitors to 81/2, at which points the screw was turned and they put the brakes on the run rate.
De Burgh-Whyte finished the innings as the pick of the bowlers with 3/25 from her four overs as they restricted Malahide to 139/5 from their 20 overs, securing an 84 run win and 25 points for the home side.
YMCA VS PHOENIX
Elsewhere, YMCA bowled first in Claremont Road, and thanks to four wickets for Vanshika Shukla, as well as two apiece for Georgina Dempsey and Gaby Lewis saw them restrict Phoenix to 91 all out inside 16 overs. In reply, Dempsey opened the batting with Sophie Strickland, the pair put together a partnership of 66 for the first wicket before Dempsey was dismissed for 20. Strickland saw the game through to the end, finishing on 46* in an 8 wicket win which was completed inside 10.3 overs.
LEINSTER VS THE HILLS
In Observatory Lane, The Hills batted first and made 116 all out in the final over of their innings with Clíodhna O’Reardon top scoring in making 24. Sarah Ingram was the pick of the bowlers for Leinster taking 4/24 from 3.5 overs, whilst Joanna Loughran took 3/24 from her 4 over spell. Loughran then continued her good form from earlier in the week, making an excellent 46* from just 31 balls as they chased down their target of 117 in just 12 overs in spite of 2/29 from Robyn Searle, securing a 6 wicket win for the home side.
PEMBROKE VS CLONTARF
Finally the closest game of the night came in Sydney Parade, where Pembroke batted first and ran up a good total of 171/3 in their 20 overs, with the bulk of the runs coming in the opening partnership between Mary Waldron, who top scored with 71, and Clare Shillington who made 65, with the pair adding 134 for their opening stand. In response, Clontarf went off like a train, Bhavi Devchand striking boundaries at will in an opening stand of 82 with Christina Coulter-Reilly who made 15, before being the second batter out, LBW to Anna Beale, for 86 from 45 deliveries, by which time the score had reached 120 in just 11.1 overs.
At this point Pembroke dragged themselves back into the game thanks to a brace of wickets for Louise McCarthy, before one apiece for Zoe Bell and Kimli McDonald continued the pressure. Anna Beale returned to take two further wickets and reduce ‘Tarf to 158/8, giving Pembroke the upper hand with just 9 balls to go. Requiring 10 runs from the final over, Aoife Brennan took a single to give Hannah Pasley the strike, at which point she blasted two boundaries to bring the scores level. Mary Waldron then bowled two dot balls, before a final ball single saw Clontarf to what at one stage had looked to be an extremely unlikely victory.