PEMBROKE MOVE SECOND WITH VICTORY OVER YMCA - 9.8

Runs for Shauna Kavanagh (56*) and LouLou Little (38) were the main contributors for Pembroke last night, as they put together a 16 run victory over local rivals YMCA to not only secure their slot in the top four for the second half of the season, but to move into second position outright and make themselves the closest challengers to Leinster for the league title.

Having won the toss, YMCA asked Pembroke to bat first and a half-century opening stand between Mary Waldron and LouLou Little came up inside 7 overs. The score had progressed to 55 when the first ball of Alice Tector’s second over cannoned into Waldron’s pads to see her adjudged LBW for 14. That wicket was the highlight of an excellent 4 over spell in the middle-overs from Tector, as she bowled her allocation for just 18 runs including a maiden.

That wicket brought Shauna Kavanagh to the crease and herself and Little accelerated the scoring rate further, their 86 run partnership took jus 52 balls as they took the score up to 141 before Kavanagh hammered a cover drive to Gaby Lewis’ left at cover, her international team-mate made an excellent stop and ran Little out at the keeper’s end for 38.

Clare Shillington joined Kavanagh at the crease and the pair continued to score quickly, in the 19^th over Kavanagh moved past 50 before Shillington launched the only 6 of the innings over square leg. The pair added 39 runs in the final 4 overs of the innings to bring the score to 180/2 from their 20 overs.

At the interval, the umpires informed the scorers that due to YMCA’s slow over rate, Pembroke were awarded an extra 18 runs, a pleasant surprise for the home side, which meant that YM required 199 to win.

The second innings began quickly as YM knew they needed 10 an over from the outset, having struck two boundaries, Gaby Lewis missed a Mary Waldron delivery to be stumped by Shauna Kavanagh for 9. Robyn Lewis joined Jenny Gray at the crease at this point and the pair set about building a partnership in an effort to make a dent in the mammoth chase.

Lewis was in fine form, hammering boundaries over and through extra-cover almost at will, whilst Gray was busy at the crease, punishing loose deliveries to the boundary when the opportunity came. She brought up her 50 in the 15^th over of the innings, and with 5 overs to go, YMCA had gotten themselves within 64 runs of victory and were beginning to sniff a chance of completing the improbable chase.

Eimear Mullen bowled the 16^th over, clean bowling Jenny Gray for 50 with the first ball of the over, bringing Sarah Forbes to the crease. The wicket-keeper hammered two boundaries to the square leg rope before she was also bowled by Mullen for just 8. Lewis was on 67* at this point, and needed to be not out at the end for YM to have a chance of winning.

In the 18^th over, with the score on 158, a mix-up between Lewis and Emma McEvoy saw the former run out at the bowler’s end for an excellent 74 from just 50 balls. What made this dismissal even more agonising for YM was the face that just three balls later they gained 12 penalty runs for Pembroke’s slow over rate meaning YM needed 27 from the final two overs to win.

With Lewis at the crease this was not beyond the realms of possibility, but without her boundary striking ability the away side struggled to get the ball away and could muster only a further 10 runs in the final two overs, seeing Pembroke run out 16 run victors.

SPRINT COATINGS DIVISION ONE
AT SYDNEY PARADE
Pembroke – 198/2, 20 overs (S Kavanagh 56*, L Little 38; A Tector 1/18)
beat
YMCA – 182/6, 20 overs (R Lewis 74, J Gray 50; E Mullen 2/34, H Little 1/19)
by 16 runs