France v Spain 8 May 2022

Series: France Quad-Series May 2022
Venue: Dreux Sport Cricket Club Ground
Format: T20I
Toss: Spain
Result: France by 66 runs

Records Broken by France as They Register First Win

France finally got their campaign underway on this final day of the tournament, breaking their duck and recording their highest team total to date and biggest victory margin, defeating Spain by 66 runs.

Spain’s Elspeth Fowler won the toss and sent France in to bat. The home team responded by recording their highest total in T20 Internationals, 163/5. Honours were shared among the batters right down the list with Pooja Ganesh (32*), Alix Brodin (32), Poppy McGeown (26). Cameos from the lower order including 11 from 5 deliveries by Lydie Wykes-Templeman who hit her first international six.

It really was a festival of batting provided by team France but there was also a positive not for Spain, for despite the high score – something they’ve endured all tournament – they only bowled 17 wides and 7 no-balls. This is a marked improvement from the previous matches.

It was once again left to Spain’s captain to do the bulk of the scoring and her 42 not out took her to 141 runs for the tournament at 47.00. The difficulty was getting runs at the other end, and while two other players reached double figures, the run rate was a struggle and Spain finished the match, and their campaign, 97/3.

Despite finishing the tournament with no wins from their first international series, there are many positives – the fact that the team batted their full number of overs on each outing, the improvement on bowling extras. A very good campaign from the skipper and a number of others making useful contributions along the way. They are not far from recording their first win.

Player of the Match was awarded to Pooja Ganesh for her unbeaten 32.

Scores:

France 163/5 (Pooja Ganesh 32*, Alix Brodin 32, Poppy McGeown 26, Jaspreet Kaur 1-18) 20 overs
Spain 97/3 (Elspeth Fowler 42*, Uswa Syed 17*, Lydie Wykes-Templeman 1-15) 20 overs

Player of the Match: Pooja Ganesh