Meir Heath finish third in the National Indoor Knockout Cup Final at Lords

Elsa Evans believes the sense of occasion that came with playing at Lords was an influential part of Meir Heath finishing third in the Indoor National Knock Out Cup final at Lords on Sunday 15^th April.

Evans’ side have taken part in various tournaments to get to this stage of the competition as 80 teams were whittled down to the final five of the Knock Out cup.

She said: “I think we had a pretty sound run in the tournament and played some really good cricket at times and I don’t think we played bad cricket at any point.

“To be honest it was a case of nerves, I think the whole situation of playing in the finals got to us a little. On paper Plympton and ourselves are just as strong, but we need to work on keeping our wicket.”

The final, played out between themselves, Plympton, Burton Latimer, Twickenham and Shillingstone, took place in a league format with the top two teams progressing to the final.

Meir Heath started their challenge against Devon side Plympton and unfortunately they got off to a slow start, the long journey down to Lords perhaps taking its toll when they were unable to defend 85.

They then went on to win the next two games against Twickenham and Shillingstone comfortably, scoring over a 100 in each game. This meant if they beat Burton Latimer in their final game, it would come down to bonus points between the two of them and Plympton.

Meir Heath had met Burton Latimer in the semi final stage a couple of weeks ago in Milton Keynes and had lost to them in the group stage but then beat them in final, so both teams went into the game full of confidence.

Burton Latimer batted first and finished on 116 from their nine overs. In reply the Staffordshire side made a good start and some big hitting from Frankie James left them with hope, but the fall of wickets as they chanced their arm to get close to the run rate, kept pushing them further away from their target.

Meir Heath finished on 106-6 meaning the final would be played out between Plympton and Burton Latimer; the Devon side ran out easy victors by 57 runs to become national champions.

Evans said: “Losing wickets is always going to play a crucial factor when it’s minus five per wicket lost, we just lost too many wickets and from then on it’s hard to come back.

“We definitely had the potential to be in the final but credit goes to Plympton and Burton Latimer they just played better than us on the day, but I’m very proud, it’s such a great achievement coming third out of eighty teams, especially with having such a young side.”

Even though Evans is proud of the girls, it was still disappointing for the 21 year old to come so close, but there will be no excuses.

Evans continued: “It was an amazing day and a privilege to play at Lords, the facilities and hospitality were amazing, we loved every minute of it. The journey may have played a part but we aren’t a team to make excuses about our performances.

“The tournament is an excellent idea and brings the fun back into women’s cricket. It gave us a chance a chance to play through the whole winter and bond more as a team, especially when bringing new players into the squad.”

Meir Heath Ladies CC have their day at Lords after progressing to the National Indoor final

Meir Heath Ladies Cricket Club has progressed to the final of the Indoor National Knockout Cup at Lords after beating Burton Latimer CC.

The girls travelled down to Milton Keynes for the semi final stage of the competition, where they finished second in the round robin part of the tournament, losing only to Burton Latimer. When the two sides met again in the tournament final, it was Meir Heath who came out the victors, winning by 35 runs, to ensure their place in the competition final at Lord’s in April.

Captain Elsa Evans was unable to play in the semi final due to a broken finger but went with the side to offer her advice and support. The 21 year old is sure the squad will be full of self-belief when they have their day at Lords.

She said: “There’s certainly a confident vibe around the side, but this time we need to hit the ground running and not to expect it to be easy.

“We know the standard is going to be a lot higher and we just need to go into the first game with the correct mindset.

“We’ll definitely be going down to Lords hoping to win, we can’t just go and expect to win.”

Evans is referring to the semi final when the side started the competition slowly losing the first game by 35 runs, putting themselves under pressure to qualify resulting in them having to win all of their remaining games; which they managed to do comprehensively.

Evans continued: “The opening game came as a bit of a shock to the system and we knew we had our work cut out.

“After the first game I told the girls to keep their heads up and I changed the tactics. Through watching the other games I realised that pace was the better option, so I said that Franki (James) and Amy (Carnwell) should bowl their allotted overs as they were the two quickest. We also changed the batting and looked to score off every ball not just picking up the boundaries and it seemed to work.”

Evans says she will be absolutely gutted if she misses the final, but she wouldn’t jeopardise the tournament by playing not fully fit.

She explained: “It’s not every day you get to play at Lords so I’m hoping to be fit, but I’m not going to play if I feel if I’m going to be a hindrance to the girls in anyway.”

The girls travel down to Lords on the 15^th April to take part in the final.