After coming through the after school cricket club to be chosen for the team, OLI were pitted against Wellesbourne, The Trinity and Middlefield in the group stages of the North/Central heat.

The first match against Middlefield saw Michee grab a hat trick of wickets to bring victory to OLI. Amman, team captain, won the toss and elected to field first. Restricting Middlefield to 213, the target was 214 to win. The game plan of no losing early wickets, worked with a total of 238 for OLI, for 2 wickets.

Game two was against Wellesbourne. Losing the toss, we were put into bat first and posted a respectable 244. Some poor fielding saw Wellesbourne narrowly win by 12 runs, putting them top of the group.

It seemed like Wellesbourne would take the top spot in the group, but there was a surprise in store. In our final match against The Trinity, Ayman won the toss and put them in to bat. Slow bowling allowed The Trinity to make some ground, scoring successive sixes to bring a total of 256. Wickets from Isabel and Michee dented their attack and brought some hope to the OLI batters.

Without losing a wicket, we scored a very high score of 285! Michee, Holly Spellman and Sean all chipping in with sixes extended our run score. Wellesbourne, Middlefield and ourselves won 2 matches out of 3, so it was down to who scored the most runs for 1st and 2nd place. After the demolition of The Trinity, we sat on top of the league, with Wellesbourne in second place.

A semi-final against Rudston was abandoned after a heavy downpour, and with no way to call a winner, both teams were put through to next week’s city finals at Sefton Park Cricket Club.

Well done to all the team, who all played an integral role – fielding and batting!