Lewis, Overdijk begin T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier with record feats

Gaby Lewis announced her arrival in the T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier with a magnificent hundred – a first for Ireland in the T20I format – with Ireland doing no harm to their pre-tournament favourites tag as they ended Germany’s winning streak of 14 matches with a massive drubbing of 164 runs at the La Manga Club Bottom Ground in Cartagena on Thursday (August 26). At the Top Ground, Netherlands played two contrasting matches as they went down easily against Scotland before Frederique Overdijk produced the best bowling figures in T20I to star in their dominant win against France.



Fresh from a short stint with Southern Brave at The Hundred, Lewis got going straight away with her opening partner Rebecca Stokell as they opted for the aggressive route. Right-handed Lewis started with a boundary through mid-off in the second over of the match while Stokell also played some stylish shots through the off-side.



20-year-old Lewis employed sweep to good effect against both the pacers and spinners with Germany bowlers struggling to keep it tight – the pacers were guilty of bowling it too full – and felt out of depth when the batters went after them. Ireland opening duo scored 41 in the first four overs and the innings really took off when they scored 23 runs in the next over bowled by Emma Bargna. They were on 79 without any loss at the end of the power play.



Post the power play, Germany had a brief good period as they sent Stokell back for 44 off 30 balls. However, Lewis didn’t let that disturb the flow of her game and soon brought up her fifty from 28 balls with six off Anne Bierwisch in the next over. Skipper Laura Delany took her time to get going while the scorching heat in Cartagena seemed to be getting to Lewis. But despite all this, Lewis found enough energy in the reserves to smack Sharanya Sadarangani for consecutive sixes to take her to 98.



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Meanwhile, Sadarngani had a small victory as she dismissed Delany for 22 with the final ball of the 18^th over. Lewis got to her and Ireland’s maiden T20I century off 55 balls with a single off Stephanie Frohnmayer in the next over and they eventually finished their innings on 196 for two in the stipulated 20 overs. Lewis remained unbeaten on 105 from 60 balls.



In reply, Germany looked out of depth and found the step-up of facing a full member nation a bit too steep to climb. Germany batters went into a shell as Ireland’s opening bowling combination of Ava Canning and Leah Paul strangled them in the power play. Only ten runs came from the first six overs with both Anna Healy and Christina Gough finding the fielders even with their good shots.



Soon Healy fell when she dragged Eimear Richardson onto the stumps in the seventh over to be dismissed for three off 20 balls. Gough was uncharacteristically subdued and skipper Anuradha Doddaballapur also didn’t try to do anything to break the bowlers’ rhythm.



Delany chose not to use her primary weapon Orla Prendergast – keeping the hectic schedule of the tournament in mind – and kept ringing the changes as she used seven bowlers with Germany not posing any threat. Lara Maritz eventually ended Gough’s laborious innings as she castled the left-hander for 14 off 58. Germany eventually stumbled their way to 32 for three at the end of the match giving Ireland a massive boost in confidence and net run rate.



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At the La Manga Club Top Ground, put into bat by Scotland in the opening fixture, Netherlands’ mixed day started with them losing the key wicket of Babette de Leede for just four to Abtaha Maqsood in the fifth over with the score reading only ten. Skipper Heather Siegers and Robine Rijke steadied the ship even as Kathryn Bryce and Co kept it tight.



Heather started with a boundary off Kathryn while Rijke hit Priyanaz Chatterji for a boundary in the last over of the power play. From there, the pair looked to be in a good rhythm and found occasional boundaries to take the score 75 at the end of the 15^th over with Rijke smashing Megan McColl for a six over long-off.



Just as it looked like the duo would give them the final push in the last five overs, the Netherlands lost Heather to Kathryn for 31. Although Miranda Veringmeier played a couple of big shots, once she fell to a run out, Netherlands couldn’t make the most of the final overs and finished on 98 for five from their 20 overs. Rijke top-scored with 43 off 47 while Maqsood, Kathryn, and Katie McGill picked one wicket each.



In the chase, Scotland openers Sarah Bryce and Lorna Jack started aggressively scoring 47 runs from the power play. Sarah started with a boundary off Isabel van der Woning and smashed Silver Siegers for a four and a six in the fifth over while Jack took on Iris Zwilling to get off the mark.







From there, the pair took the Scotland score to 69 in the tenth over before Jack became Caroline de Lange’s first wicket. Needing less than 30 runs from the second half, it looked like a cakewalk for them when de Lange set some panic in the Scotland camp with wickets of The Bryce sisters in consecutive deliveries.



De Lange picked up her fourth wicket when she dismissed McColl for three with the opposition still needing 16 runs. The experienced duo of Abbi Aitken-Drummond and McGill took Scotland home without any further loss of wickets in 16.3 overs.



In the final match of the day, Netherlands gave a complete performance to turn around their day as novices France found themselves in shallow waters on their maiden appearance in the Qualifiers.



Coming in as first change - after Marloes Braat and Eva Lynch struck to remove Alix Brodin and Jennifer King for one run each – Overdijk started her record-breaking spell with the wicket of Tara Britton as the France opener dragged her on to the stumps for five off 29 balls before removing Thea Graham with the next ball. She bowled it full and straight and six out of the seven dismissals were bowled while Graham was trapped in front.



After her twin wickets in the first over, Overdijk repeated the feat twice in her next two overs. Poppy McGeown’s wicket saw her becoming the first to take a five-wicket haul for the Netherlands in T20Is and when she bowled Maelle Cargouet for a duck, she became the first player to pick up seven wickets in a single match in the format. She finished with astonishing figures of 4-2-3-7 with not a single run coming from the bat against her.







France’s misery came to an end when Silver ended the innings with the wicket of Marie Emmanuelle Violleau as they were bundled out for just 33 runs in 17.3 overs with 13 runs coming from the last pair.



In reply, even though they lost Heather for a first-ball duck to Graham, Netherlands wasted no time to chase down the total as Rijke hit three boundaries in the second over to take the score to 24 at the end of it.



From there, it was just a matter of time and Rijke finished the match in style with a boundary through mid-wicket in the fourth over as she remained not out on 21 off just 12 balls.



Brief Scores:



Netherlands 98/5 in 20 overs (Robine Rijke 43, Heather Siegers 31; Katie McGill 1/11) lost to Scotland 99/4 in 16.3 overs (Sarah Bryce 46, Lorna Jack 21; Caroline de Lange 4/17) by six wickets POTM: Sarah Bryce



Ireland 196/2 in 20 overs (Gaby Lewis 105*, Rebecca Stokell 44) beat Germany 32/3 in 20 overs (Eimear Richardson 2/5, Lara Maritz 1/1) by 164 runs POTM: Gaby Lewis



France 33/10 in 17.3 overs (Frederique Overdijk 3/7) lost to Netherlands 34/1 in 3.3 overs (Robine Rijke 21*) by nine wickets POTM: Frederique Overdijk