NSW Women’s Premier Cricket: U18s Brewer Shield, semi finals Team of the Week
The best of the Brewer Shield was on display as four sides slugged it out for a place in the grand final. See who stood tall when their team needed it most in our Team of the Week.
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The best of the Brewer Shield was on display in the semi finals as four sides slugged it out for a place in the grand final.
See who stood tall when their team needed it most in our Team of the Week.
RELATED CONTENT:
U18S BREWER SHIELD WK-1 FINALS WRAP, TEAM OF THE WEEK
U18S BREWER SHIELD STATS: EVERY PLAYER RANKED
TEAM OF THE WEEK: WEEK-2 FINALS
1. Keira Terrey (Manly Warringah)
Continued an outstanding finals series with another influential innings at the top of the Manly order. Could’ve taken a back seat following her brilliant 72, but lifted again to derail Gordon’s chase with 3/17.
2. Eveline O’Farrell (Gordon)
Under immense pressure, the Gordon opener didn’t pull any punches with the bat, blasting a better than a run-a-ball 35 to help sway the contest until her departure.
3. Katie Martin (Southern Swans)
The Swans only had a small target to chase, and after a couple of nervous moments the opener steadied the ship with a mature 33 not out.
4. Willa Pearson (Manly Warringah)
In combination with Keira Terrey the Manly wicketkeeper hit 39 in a match winning partnership of 94. Classy behind the stumps, she played her part in two run outs.
5. Ella Yates (Southern Swans)
The vice-captain stepped up for the second week running and left her fingerprints all over the Swans’ epic semi final victory. Struck twice with the ball and held three catches before chipping in with 11 not out.
6. Eve Burke (Manly Warringah)
Bowling spin in tandem with Keira Terrey, Eve helped suffocate Gordon’s run chase with 1/7 from five overs.
7. Abigail Byrne (Gordon)
Coming on as first change, the Gordon seamer broke Manly’s opening partnership and quickly bagged another to finish with 2/21 from six overs.
8. Farrah Cody (Southern Swans)
The reliable seamer was at her consistent best against the Slayers, delivering five overs that yielded 2/6. Snared the prize wicket of Taylor McMahon with her first delivery and struck again with the final ball of her first over
9. Natalia Egan (Southern Swans)
Doesn’t always get the wickets she deserves, but the Swans opener was rewarded big time in the semi final. Bowling with impressive pace, the right-armer broke through Libby Burgess’ defence, and with the Slayers’ top run scorer back in the pavilion, she bagged another to finish her seven overs with 2/7.
10. Shyamala Shankar (Gordon)
Opening the bowling, the Gordon quick kept Manly in check taking 1/24 from 10 overs with two maidens.
11. Eleanor Wise-Mann (Gordon)
The tall right-armer took 2/28 and kept Gordon in the contest following the key wickets of Manly’s Willa Pearson and Eve Burke.
GRAND FINAL: SUNDAY, MARCH 16
Southern Swans (3rd) v Manly Warringah (4th) at King George V, Port Kembla
SEMI FINALS WRAP
Fresh from a week off, top-two sides Gordon and St George-Sutherland hosted the semi finals as the race intensified ahead of next Sunday’s U18s Brewer Shield grand final.
Here’s how both games played out at Chatswood Oval and Harold Fraser Reserve.
ROAD TO REDEMPTION
They stumbled at the final hurdle last season, but Manly Warringah have taken another step closer to redemption after comfortably accounting for minor premiers Gordon by 56 runs.
Almost 12 months to the day after they fell to Greater Hunter in last season’s decider, a determined Manly locked in consecutive grand final appearances after Keira Terrey and Willa Pearson set up the victory with a match winning stand of 94 runs.
In the hottest of form, Terrey opened the batting and repeated her elimination final heroics, batting out the majority of the 50 overs with a knock of 72 from 138 deliveries as Manly posted 7/161.
At 1/48 in reply, the Stags were perfectly placed to make a charge until Terrey ruined their afternoon with the ball. Tough to get away at the best of times, the off-spinner ripped out three wickets for 17 from 10 pinpoint overs as Gordon crumbled for 105 inside 41 overs.
For Gordon, it was a day of ups and downs. In the field, they missed Jorja Horan after the pace bowler honoured state football commitments in the morning before arriving later to take her place in the batting order.
That said, Abigail Byrne (2/21, six overs) struck two early blows for the home side before Pearson and Terry rescued the innings from 2/26. Joining forces in the 14th over, Pearson (39 off 80) played a measured knock before she departed 26 overs later at 3/120.
After falling to Gordon in the early rounds, for coach Bill McLerie, the victory is a monkey off his side’s back.
“We hadn’t beaten any of the top four sides, so our game plan was to bat first and get a good total on the board, which we did,” said McLerie.
“Keira and Willa batted really well for the third wicket. And then we had a few little cameos at the end which got us to a defendable total.
“We always back our bowling to lead the way, but this time it was the spinners. Keira and Eve Burke really put Gordon behind the eight-ball. We got a couple of crucial wickets and Lily Crabbe took an outstanding catch to dismiss the dangerous Jorja Horan.”
Now scheduled to face the Southern Swans in the grand final, McLerie knows his side will need to bring their A-game after they were beaten by 71 runs when they met last month.
“It’ll be a tough game against the Swans. They’re a strong side with a good bowling outfit, and they’ve got some powerful girls who can whack the ball.” said McLerie.
“Having said that, we have a stronger side this year. There’s five girls backing up, and as they say, you’ve got to lose one to win one, so hopefully that rings true for us.
“We’ve had several new girls come into the team from last season and they have helped to bring the standard up which gives us greater depth.”
Manly Warringah 7/161, 50 overs (Terrey 72, Pearson 39, Brown 15; Byrne 2/21, Wise-Mann 2/28, Platt 1/21, Shankar 1/24 ) defeated Gordon 10/105, 40.1 overs (O’Farrell 35, Billinghurst 15*; Terrey 3/17, Searles 2/1, Burke 1/7, Kyme 1/12) at Chatswood Oval
SWANS TAKE FLIGHT
The Southern Swans are just one win away from pulling off a miracle revival after the Illawarra girls steamrolled St George-Sutherland to make the grand final in the club’s second season.
After finishing at the foot of the Brewer table as Illawarra in 2022/23, the rebranded Swans have taken flight, rising to claim a berth in next Sunday’s decider which they will host on home turf.
Despite sitting among the frontrunners all season, no one anticipated the ease with which they eliminated their northern rivals by eight wickets at Harold Fraser Reserve.
After losing the toss, the Swans attack immediately kicked into gear and rolled the Slayers for 59 runs.
Bria Campbell and regular run-machine, Libby Burgess, added 21 for the opening wicket. But when Ebony Winston removed Campbell the floodgates opened.
Natalia Egan then bowled Burgess before Farrah Cody trapped the dangerous Taylor McMahon in front of the wickets without scoring. And it was 4/21, when Cody had Garwa Li caught by Ella Yates.
Without an innings saving partnership, the Slayers’ final wicket fell in the 37th over with less than 60 on the board.
The Swans lost two wickets in the chase before Katie Martin (33* off 60) and Yates (11* off 32) added 43 for the third wicket.
“The girls played another great game and stuck to the plans,” said co-coach Aaron Hudson.
“We had a tough match against Greater Hunter last week, so we knew we were battle ready, the girls have really put in and bought into what we want to do as a club.
“The plan was to come and obviously play 100 overs again today, but we just got into a rhythm and took wickets. Everyone bowled well and stopped the flow of runs and we were able to increase the pressure with sharp fielding.”
To outsiders, the scorecard suggests the Swans may have dodged a bullet by losing the toss.
“We thought the pitch was pretty good and would have batted first if we won the toss,” said Hudson.
“We watched a bit of the game on Saturday that was live streamed, and thought there was nothing too bad in it.”
While they only had a small total to defend, as they have done all season, the Slayers bowlers refused to throw in the towel and asked everything of the Swans’ top order.
“Credit to their opening bowler Beth Millican, she steamed in with the new ball and gave it her all,” said Hudson.
“We lost a couple of wickets and it was a good learning curve for our girls to realise they still had to dig in and get the job done.”
St George-Sutherland 10/59, 36.2 overs (Burgess 15; Yates 2/4, Cody 2/6, Egan 2/7, Hudson 1/11, Winston 1/16) lost to Southern Swans 2/61, 21 overs (Martin 33*, Yates 11*; Galeano 1/11, Millican 1/13) at Harold Fraser Reserve
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