County commitments, a lacrosse tournament and a netball tour had carved great chunks out of the Huskies squad, and finding three willing volunteers from the wider U15 cohort proved, shall we say, more of a project than it should have been. Enter Annabel and Lulu - a brilliant tip from George and Luke, and one we're very grateful for. Without giving too much away, let's just say they're on speed dial for whenever we need cover this season!

Before the cricket, two notable firsts. For reasons that remain unexplained, this game was moved to the first team pitch at Bishops Stortford. Lovely in principle. Marginally less lovely when you only have eight players and need to cover every inch of it. Secondly, and this deserves a moment, yesterday was the fourth consecutive Harpenden vs Bishops Stortford fixture that passed without major incident between the respective team managers. Ant has complicated feelings about this. Part of him, it is fair to say, misses the old days. But it is nice to simply watch the girls play cricket. Andy at Bishops Stortford also deserves credit: he worked hard to get this game on, and his selection headaches were equal to ours.

We won the toss and elected to bat. Despite the unfamiliar personnel, nothing about the approach changed: be brave, be smart, build a total. Emelia and Holly got things off to a solid start, balancing positive shot-making with sensible play against the better deliveries. The pitch had a split personality, significantly different behaviour from each end, but the team adapted and kept pushing for runs, converting ones into twos with sharp running and positive calling. Wickets fell at regular intervals, but in the context of the surface and the team’s ambition, there is plenty to take from the batting innings.

We have grown used to the top order scoring runs this season. Today’s game called on the lower order in a way previous games had not. Olivia answered by getting off the mark with a nicely timed boundary and finished with 11. Annabel and Lulu, forgivably a little nervous on debut, stood tall when it mattered and combined for 14 runs off the final seven balls. We will return to the significance of those 25 runs in due course. Had you offered us 145/7 before the game, we’d have taken it.

The bowling innings was always going to require some creative thinking. Without three front-line bowlers and our first-choice wicketkeeper, the plan had to flex. Tamsin and Emelia shared the keeping duties between them, and the bowling order was rebuilt around that complication. The plan, as always, centred on line and length, keeping the stumps in play, staying sharp in the field, and make the opposition work for everything.

What the plan did not account for was the female Sooryavanshi opening the batting for Stortford. Her 50 off 35 balls was genuinely impressive, anything even marginally off a good length was dispatched, and the gaps created by our shortage of players were mercilessly exposed. An onslaught like that can easily derail a team. Not this one. There was no panic, no loss of composure. The collective understanding was clear: she’ll retire at 50, and then it’s a different game. Sure enough, when the 11yr old superstar walked off in the 10th over with the score at 77, the mood shifted immediately.

Harriet and Olivia got to work and slowed the rate considerably, beating the bat repeatedly without the reward their bowling deserved. Annabel’s two overs were exceptional, five runs conceded and her first wicket at U15 level. Having handed the gloves to Emelia, Tamsin delivered three consecutive maidens, and Lulu took two wickets in consecutive balls and a registered a maiden of her own. Special shout out here to Harriet who took an outrageous one-handed catch for Lulu’s second. Holly claimed our last wicket in the 19th over, and Bishops Stortford finished on 117/6.

The scorecard paints a comfortable picture. The game itself was less so. Both innings required real effort, real application and real character.

The ask of these girls never changes: be brave, play smart, be a great teammate.

Yesterday, they delivered on all three: Bravery at the end of the batting innings, remove the 25 runs that Olivia, Annabel and Lulu scored and this is a very different game; Smart cricket throughout: stolen singles, calm heads when the ball was flying about, and disciplined pressure when the time came to apply it; And the way in which the team welcomed and integrated Annabel and Lulu was the Huskies at their best, the balance this group strikes between competing hard and playing for fun is something to be proud of.

Happy faces at the end. A big banana skin avoided. Maximum points at the halfway stage of the season!

We play Hitchin on Tuesday. They will be motivated. We will have a much-changed team as our county players and those unavailable yesterday return to the fold. They owe a significant thank you to the eight who played and won at Stortford.