The Isle of Man women’s cricket team have opened up their tour of Malta with two nine-wicket wins against their Mediterranean hosts. 

In the first match at the Marsa Sports Club, Isle of Man captain Alanya Thorpe chose to bowl first. 

The Malta innings was notably for economical bowling from the Manx bowlers with Jo Hicks leading the way with 2-7, Lucy Barnett 1-8, Catherine Perry 1-18 and Caitlin Henery conceding only 11 from her four overs as Malta reach 79 for five wickets in their 20 overs. 

In reply, the Isle of Man batters calmly knocked off the score with Lucy Barnett hitting an unbeaten 35 before retiring. 

Kim Carney with 16 and Caitlin Henery with 14 not out saw the Isle of Man home with nine wickets to spare. 

The second match, incredibly, saw Thorpe win her ninth consecutive toss and the Isle of Man again chose to bowl first. This was undoubtedly the correct decision as Malta were all out for 50 runs in the 15th over. 

Castletown won the under-15s league last week after beating Peel and St John's by six wickets to complete the season unbeaten (Photo: Isle of Man Cricket Association)
Castletown won the under-15s league last week after beating Peel and St John's by six wickets to complete the season unbeaten (Photo: Isle of Man Cricket Association) (Isle of Man Cricket Association)

A fantastic effort in the field by the Isle of Man started off by two excellent run outs by Henery and Clare Crowe. The introduction of Hicks saw wickets start to fall, with Jo picking up a wicket in her first over.  

She then bowled another two economical overs before her final over saw her take four wickets including a hat trick in a quadruple-wicket maiden to finish with figures of 5-10. Lucy Barnett 1-9 and Caitlin 1-8 were the other wicket takers. The bowlers were well backed up in the field with three run outs and six catches including three by Ellan Cleator. 

In reply, Barnett’s positive start of 16 runs from only six balls got the innings underway well before Lucy was run out. 

Kim Carney continued her fine form with 13 not out and Caitlin Henery hit 17 not out from only eight balls as the Isle of Man reached the target with nine wickets and almost eight overs to spare.  

The match report for the third game of the series will be featured in Thursday’s Independent. 

After the Malta bilateral series, the team are also scheduled to take part in the Valletta Cup against Malta, Greece, MCC and Serbia.

The schedule of fixtures is: August 21: IoM v Malta (3pm start); August 22: IoM v MCC (3pm start); August 23: IoM v Serbia (3pm start); August 24: IoM V Greece (3pm start).

SIMON CRELLIN