Under 18s beaten in Final

Going into the match with confidence after beating NSW earlier in the tournament, Victoria started well, striking early to leave the opposition 2-24 but from there the tables turned with no less than six of their opponents making scores in excess of 20 to propel the final score to 9-224.

Anna O’Donnell (4-34) and Alana King (2-60) were the most successful of the Victorian attack, while opening bowlers Julia Crockett-Grills (1-22) and Anna Lanning (1-26) kept it tight.

Victoria got off to a horror start losing their top three batters, Kate Dempsey, Siobhan Murphy and Teagen Parker for ducks.

From there they could never recover and despite a fighting 21 from Rebekah Morris, they were dismissed in the 31st over for 59.

Victorian coach Liam Castellas wasn’t satisfied with the performance in the Final but felt with such a young side they could go one step further next season.

“Yesterday was disappointing but I felt we really achieved something by making the Final,” Castellas said.

“We will only lose four or five girls from this squad next year and the two girls named in the Team of the Tournament, Sarah Tatchell and Julia Crocket-Grills, will play Under 18’s next year.

“We will also have our wicketkeeper Teagen Parker and our opening batter Kate Dempsey in the side.

“I will look back over the tournament to see what went wrong and we will work hard over the winter and come back and go one better next year.”

Tatchell finished the tournament as the second highest wicket taker with 14, while Crockett-Grills and King both finished with 12.

Dempsey led the Victorians in run scoring with 143, while Parker (123) and King (89) also performed well with the bat.