The Womens 1st XI won their second trophy of the year in impressive style. Following on from their win in the Leinster Senior Cup they took on the Ulster champions CSNI in the All-Ireland T20 final at the Mardyke. A small group of dedicated travellers were there to support the team, and after an initial hiccup with the Live Streaming the rest of the club was able to follow the game live.
The story of the match is easily told. CSNI won the toss and decided to field first. The Merrion openers, Rebecca Stokell and Celeste Racck laid the foundations with a 96 run partnership and then Stokell went on to score 110* off 69 balls. Merrion’s final score of 169/3 was always going to be a very tough ask of CSNI.
An excellent opening spell from Niamh McNulty [1/11] and Hannah deBurgh White [0/12] ensured that CSNI did not get off to a good start and the balance of the game quickly shifted sdecisively in Merrion’s favour. There were wickets for Sophie Stewart, Raack and Sibhe Bhoka and two catches behind the stumps for Ali Boucker. In the end a comfortable win by 64 runs.
Attention now turns to the Leinster Senior League with Merrion in poll position and due to play their final game against The Hills in the Vineyard on Thursday.
A full report of the match plus scorecard can be found on the Cricket Ireland website at https://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/rebecca-stokell-blasts-a-century-as-merrion-take-all-ireland-t20-cup-honour