September 2023
The recently concluded Europe Region Qualifier for the T20 Global qualifier predictably saw Scotland and The Netherlands take the two slots available from the tournament to identify the two teams to join the 8 others in the February Global play-offs, which will determine which two teams which will join the 8 elite sides already seeded for the 2024 finals.
With the games being streamed live on ICC.TV it was an opportunity to assess the standard of the two other participants, Italy and France.
The European Division B tournament was held in May & June in Jersey earlier this year, and Italy and France surprised many to take the top 2 places ahead of Jersey and Germany, with Sweden and Turkey predictably also-rans.
France were surprisingly the winners of the tournament, finishing ahead of Italy on net run rate, and after heavily losing their opening game to Italy, owed their progression to narrowly beating Jersey and Germany in their last two matches, by margins of 13 and 6 runs, whilst Italy slipped up to Jersey, and Jersey lost to France and Germany.
The move to Division A to play the Dutch and Scotland was clearly a big step up for their young and inexperienced side, and the effort of playing 6 matches against such strong opposition took their toll as the Regional qualifier progressed. Despite losing all 6 matches, France could take several positives from their performances.
Their best performance with the bat was a total of 106 for 7 vs Scotland but they would have been disappointed with their 9 wicket loss to Italy in their second meeting with the Azzurri.
Cheshire’s 16 year-old Amy Seddon shone with the bat, showing the temperment to bat for long periods as wickets fell around her. With 86 runs she finished as the top run scorer for France and at 116, faced the most balls. Her top score was 26 against the Netherlands and had four consecutive double figure scores to finish the competition. She also bowled very tidily, but just one wicket was not a return reflective of how well she had bowled.
16-year old wicket-keeper Iris McKeown made a fantastic 56 vs Scotland, but was unable to follow this up with any other score of substance. To emphasise her potential, she had previously scored 94 versus Sweden in Division B qualifier.
Captain Marie-Emmanuelle Violleau took much of the burden of leading a side slightly out of its depth, but after opening with 38 versus The Netherlands in their first fixture, was only able to add another 26 runs in the final 5 innings. She also bravely bore the brunt of the bowling when her attack was being flayed to all parts to spare them demoralising figures.
Poppy McGeown scored 118 runs at an average of 39 in qualifiers, with a 58 not out against Turkey, but was unable to replicate that form at the higher level, and made just 27 runs in 5 innings.
Anika Bester took 10 wickets in the Division B qualifiers, including 4-20 in the shock 6 run win over Jersey that went a long way to earning promotion. At the higher level she respectably returned 6 wickets at an average of just below 18.
Of their other players, 16 year old Emma Patel’s bowling looked promising and perhaps deserved more than three wickets.
Italy deserved finished in third place after two wins over France. They made 137 for 5 in their first meeting with France, thanks mostly to a 96 run partnership between Sharon Withanage and Emilia Bartram.
The 42 year old Withanage scored 103 runs in the competition and Oxfordshire captain Bartram made the only half-century for her side, with a 50 not out against France. Bowling away swing from around the wicket and pitching the ball up to entice the batters to drive, Bartram deserved many more wickets than the three in the column against her name, and suffered from several dropped catches off her bowling.
18 year old Regina Suddahazai reportedly plays for Sussex and made a best score of 26 not out against The Netherlands, and also showed a worthy ability to stay at the crease. After taking 7 wickets in qualifiers, she deserved better than just one wicket in this competition with her flighted off-spin.
16 year old wicket-keeper Methnara Rathnayake made 30 opening the batting against Scotland, and after having made 105 runs in the qualifiers Chathurika Mahamalage contributed 58 runs and 5 wickets.
Captain Kumudu Peddick took 4 for 10 versus France in their first meeting with a beguiling mixture of in-swing, cutters and spin and contributed some useful runs with the bat.
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