Captain Emma McLeod hit her second century of the tournament as unbeaten St Matthew’s was crowned national cricket champions yesterday.
After Tuesday’s matches in Christchurch were washed out, the title was decided by round-robin and yesterday morning’s match with the only other unbeaten team after two rounds, Takapuna Grammar, was a virtual final.
A superb bowling and fielding performance, led by McLeod with 3–14 and two wickets each to Vanessa Taylor and Lucy Jurlina, limited the dangerous Takapuna batters to 101.
McLeod [41] and Sally Booth [22] set a solid platform in the chase, putting on 62 in 12 overs for the first wicket. Although there were some stumbles, St Matt’s got there with seven balls to spare.
However, it was in yesterday afternoon’s match against Christchurch Girls’ High School where McLeod underlined her class with a stunning 133 as St Matt’s raced to an insurmountable 219-4 off their 20 overs.
Christchurch were never in the hunt and finished at 139-4.
See the full report in tomorrow’s Times-Age.
