Uplands Girls' Cricket 2008
The Uplands College Girls’ 1st Cricket XI has played a number of matches this season and is still undefeated. Their first match was against Lydenburg. Lydenburg batted first and scored 97 for 7 wickets after their allotted 25 overs. Janaed Brodell was the best bowler with 2/13 in her 4 overs. Uplands went into bat and scored 98 with only two wickets down. Grace Howland top scored with 36 runs and Janaed Brodell stood firm to the end and scored a quick 30 runs not out. Uplands won by 8 wickets.

In their next match, the Girls’ XI played Hoërskool Bergvlam on Wednesday afternoon. Bergvlam batted first and scored 102 runs. Gretchen Dietz bowled beautifully and took 4 wickets for 16 runs. Heather McGinn took 2 wickets. Uplands went into bat and scored 103 for 3. Meegan Lindsay became the first Uplands girl to score 50 runs in an innings. The ever reliable Grace Howland scored 20 runs. It was an overall good performance by the girls and they won by 7 wickets with no nails broken, no mascara smutches…

The Girls’ best performance was against Lowveld High at the College. Uplands won the toss and chose to bowl first. They had the ascendancy right from the beginning and wickets tumbled with regular interval. Lowveld were bowled out for 56 runs in the 19th over. The main wicket taker was Heather McGinn who took three wickets. She was ably supported by Grace Howland, Gretchen Dietz and Jenaed Brodell who took two each. Jenaed contributed more by taking two stunning catches, one a la Jonty Rhodes style.
Uplands went into bat and scored 57 runs with only 1 wicket down thus winning the match by 9 wickets. The top scorer was Grace Howland with 25 runs not out and Meegan Lindsay scored 18 not out. It was a spirited performance by the Uplands girls. The bowling was tight and the fielding was crisp. Grace Howland was named Player of the Match with a good all-round performance.

Their next game was against Penryn College. Penryn batted first and was bowled out for 37 runs. Danielle Balcou, Claudia Howe and Grace Howland all took two wickets. Meegan Lindsay and Grace Howland scored the winning runs and Uplands finished on 38/3 after 10 overs. Uplands won by 7 wickets.

This past Monday, Uplands played a return match against Bergvlam. It was by far their toughest opposition. Uplands batted first this time and managed to score a credible 104 runs in their 20 overs with Meegan Lindsay and Janaed Brodell both scoring 27 runs. Bergvlam went into bat and scored 91/7 in their 20 overs. Gretchen Dietz was the pick of the bowlers and took three wickets. Uplands won by 13 runs.

The Uplands Girls’ secured a spot in the Mpumalanga semi-finals on Wednesday, 10 September at the College. Their opponents were from the Highveld: Greendale Hi9gh School from Witbank. Greendale batted first and their 1st wicket partnership set the tone to boast a competitive score. They made 101/3 after their 25 overs. Uplands was scuttled out for 34 runs with Meegan Lindsay scoring 17. Uplands was outclassed by a well-organised outfit, but can reflect back on a very successful season.