League's exciting young representative team beat MCC for second year running

After last year's nailbiting one-wicket win, this win over the MCC was achieved with a degree of comfort, with four wickets and 29 balls in hand, and this included three wickets which fell just before the end and made the match look closer than it had been.
This was the youngest side the CWCL's representative team has fielded so far, but it contained some very exciting prospects.

This description most certainly applies to the Porthill Park duo of Emily Stones and Ellie-Mae Davies, and here Stones bowled a brisk and penetrating opening spell where she obtained significant lateral movement, before she returned for a second spell at the end to finish with fine figures of 2-12 in eight overs.

Davies is the leading wicket-taker in the league's first division this year, and she certainly transferred her league form to the bigger stage with a flawless six-over spell that produced two wickets and only three runs conceded. The third Porthill player in the team, Georgia Norman, took one catch off the bowling of each of her two clubmates.

Molly Price is another exciting young talent who didn't look out of place in the second division of the senior county championship when she made her Cheshire debut at only 15 years of age last year. Once again, the Chester Boughton Hall starlet bowled superbly in this fixture, recording 2-12 in seven overs.

The MCC batsmen were never really able to accelerate - their top score was just 20, made by Eloise Porter. Gillian Spragg returned as captain of the League XI this year, having previously led the team in the very first MCC fixture back in 2009, and in the closing overs she also got amongst the wickets, with both her victims coming via stumpings by her Stockport Trinity clubmate Carys White.

So lunch was taken with the League XI in a strong position, and the good work continued as Roshini Prince-Navaratnam and Kate Harvey added 51 for the first wicket. It took a fine slip catch from MCC captain Bev Nicholson to finally make the breakthrough, ending Harvey's innings of 23.

White was able to bat in the same number four position as when she made her matchwinning knock of 86 not out in this fixture last year, an innings of such maturity that one sometimes forgets she is still a teenager herself. On this occasion though she was able to play with more freedom, with less than 70 needed when she arrived at the crease, and there were some fine strokes in her 21 from 22 deliveries.

Prince-Navaratnam batted through the first 31 overs, playing a vital anchor role, and was just starting to unleash her repertoire of shots when she fell for 44. Many League bowling attacks have been on the receiving end of her destructive batting capabilities in recent years, so while this was an atypical knock from the Didsbury opener it was a no less worthy contribution.

Dani Warren claimed three wickets in an accurate spell as the Cheshire batters edged towards the target, but if there were any doubts starting to creep in the League XI still had a very capable number seven in the shape of Stones, and it was her who struck the winning boundary at the start of the 36th over.