The CJCA Cricket Celebration took place on November 2nd and 3rd. With numerous extra-curricular events happening at this time of year, many schools struggled to provide a complete side. Luckily, the CSKI Girls team came together with a mix of experienced cricketers who helped lead the way on the pitch and keen sportspeople who contributed vital roles to our results. The team mood was super positive and a real pleasure to be a part of.
Our first game on day one was against Cathedral Grammar. The conditions started overcast but the clouds burnt off and it became warm enough to play in our PE t-shirts. We restricted our opponents to 95 runs off 20 overs and then got the required total in 8 overs through aggressive batting from Emilia, Ianthe, Emma and Millie. We continued to bat on to get further experience as a squad and give all the Cathedral Grammar bowling attack time to turn their arms.
Our second round was cancelled due to the unavailability of an opponent and we got a bye for the arvo. We came back to school during lunch break, but with 2 wins in the bag!
On day 2 we faced two schools. St Andrews College had a squad much like ours and featured some hyper aggressive opening batters. We lost the toss and had to set a score in damp, chilly, overcast conditions. All our experienced cricketers put an expensive price on their wicket, preying on loose deliveries and our first timers had to scurry runs when the rules forced our players to retire. 135 runs was a great result for us but St Andrews had scored 180 runs in a game the previous day.
Our bowling attack got pummelled initially as St Andrews took advantage of the grace period and swung for the fences. Then we placed Emilia into the match up and she rose to the challenge, bowling out a key player. STAC regathered and remained ahead of the run rate. Our bowlers had plenty of work to do as we headed into the last 10 overs.
Ianthe and Lucy R led the charge, bowling out set batters in their spells and our fielders kept things tight with a shallow circle around the wicket to cut off singles. The required run rate and scoreboard pressure started to affect the game. The last 5 overs were bowled superbly by Sophie, Emma, Lucy, Eden, Millie and Ianthe. They found their groove and put the game out of reach for STAC as they came up 10 runs short.
A special shout out here goes to Phil Law who had the time to come and watch on both days and give some incredible pointers to batters in waiting. He also assisted as a square leg umpire in day 2 when an umpire became unavailable.
Our final game was against St Margarets college. This team was unfortunately unable to field their complete squad to take the field but normally play together in Saturday competitions. They had 5 players. The rain was also coming in. Through mutual agreement with the organisers and coaches, we mixed our squads together and played out a shortened fun match with effectively a reverse batting and newbie bowling order so all our people could walk away with an experience of the game. Lucy T, Ziva, Iris and Millie really looked the part out in the middle, going after the ball with the bat, hunting down shots with great ground skills when fielding and increasingly showing competence in the art of bowling.
So, with 4 wins from 4 rounds, CSKI had won the 2023 event! The girls served the school proudly and vivaciously and complemented each other with infectious positivity.
