Durham Women won their promotion decider against Oxfordshire and earned the right to play Division 2 cricket next season in the ECB Women’s County Championship.
Result: Durham Women (210 all out) beat Oxfordshire Women (125 all out) by 85 runs.
Durham’s spinners were clinical in the second innings to lead the team to a dominant 85-run victory over Oxfordshire in their playoff clash on Monday at Bicester and North Oxford Cricket Club.
Rachel Petherick was imperious with the ball to claim figures of 2-9 off 60 balls, while Helen Fenby contributed another four wickets (4-47).
Durham lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Despite getting off to a slow start at 26 for two from ten overs, Durham managed to recover with Rachel Hopkins stepping in to boost the score by 35 runs.
Ami Campbell was ruthless with the bat at number six to add 46 runs to Durham’s total as the highest-scoring batter in the game.
At the loss of a fourth wicket, Laura Ellison got in to continue the good work with another 35 runs, including striking four boundaries, as the team ended on 210 all out in 49 overs.
In the second innings, Fenby made a quick breakthrough in the fourth over, sending a spin ball down Oxfordshire’s opening batter Genny Porter, who was well caught by Campbell.
Durham restricted Oxfordshire to 32 for three in 15 overs after an excellent catch from Ellison, bowled by Fenby and a masterful ball from Petherick, which dismissed Eleanor Ingram.
The hosts began to dry up the runs after Durham’s early surge as the good spell of fielding continued for Durham Women with two grabs from Hopkins and another from Campbell.
The visitors’ spinners completed the game with impressive results for Fenby (4-47), Petherick (2-9), Hayley Falla (2-32) and Ellison (2-6) to edge the opposition to 123 all out in 44.4 overs.
Durham and Worcestershire will replace Derbyshire and Northamptonshire in Division 2 next season.
Campbell, who ended the game with the highest batting score and two catches, said: “It’s a great feeling to have done what I was meant to be doing at number five. We had two early wickets and pressure was on to build a partnership half way through.”
Commenting on the second innings, Campbell added: “Top four bowlers were unbelievable today. We can actually thank them for this win as well because I think it would have been tight if we were a little bit rocky on the bowling, but we weren’t – we were spot on all the time.”
In regards to promotion, Campbell said: “We needed a higher standard and I think, to improve, we need to learn. It will be really good for us a team to train that little bit harder and push ourselves that little bit further. We deserve to be there (in Division 2) so I’m really really happy.”
Fenby added: “This win means a lot because we are finally back in Division 2 where we should have been this season – playing against a lot better opposition – and it’s going to be a good season next year, I’m hoping.”
Durham Women’s Head Coach Paul Carrick said following the game: “I’m really trilled for the girls – they’ve worked hard, they’ve tried hard, they’ve put into practice what we’ve tried to get across to them and it’s worked for us so I’m really happy.
“The girls will now be playing the standard that I believe they all deserve to be in. With the greatest respect to Division 3, the girls want to be playing second division cricket and try and see how well we can do there.”