The two-hour road trip to Bordertown proved too long for many as the third and fourth rounds of the South East Female Open Age Cricket League were hampered by unavailability.

South Gambier was not in a position to field a team and had no choice but to forfeit both its fixtures which meant only two official games were possible on Sunday, while North played an eight-a-side scratch match against a combined team.

Bordertown was buoyed by its home turf of Virgo Park to produce a comprehensive performance against Mil Lel in the morning battle.

The hosts were sent in, but did not get off to an ideal start after Linda Schneider’s bails were broken from Melanie Bateman in the second over of the day. After just six runs were scored from the first 15 balls, Bordertown shifted gears.

Captain Sarah Robertson hit the next ball to the boundary rope which set which set the tone for her partnership with Georgina Buick.

Robertson then went even faster when she smashed three straight fours off Dakota Caines’ bowling as the hosts motored past 50.

After scoring 56 runs in quick time their union came to an end when Robertson believed it was time to retire after smashing 33 from 27.

The absence of the captain sent a little shockwave through Bordertown’s batting line up as Mil Lel enjoyed some success in the middle overs.

Georgia Little knocked over Buick for 26 and did the same to Emily Schutz, while Lily Jane fell to Jennifer Peterson and Renae Smith was run out.

When Taleisha Rayner was clean bowled by Laura Wing, Bordertown had lost 4/18 and all of the momentum.

But Ashlyn Searle and Zoey McCarthy pulled off a recovery effort at the death.

The pair may not have found the fence, but ran extremely hard between the wickets scoring 11 singles to push the score up to a solid 6/113 after 20 overs.

Mil Lel’s run chase struggled to spring into life from the start as Bordertown’s new-ball pair Jane and Robertson gave nothing away.

Robertson continued her fine day out dismissing Wing with her first ball of the game and did not concede a run off the bat throughout her entire opening spell.

As the pressure mounted the visitors went into their shells and took 41 balls to crawl into double figures.

Ryleigh McBain’s long vigil at the crease finished when she retired on nine, but her departure quickly occurred moments after the dismissals of Peterson and Bateman.

With her side scoring just 23 runs from the first 10 overs, Victoria Radley took matters into her own hands and took no time to hit the first boundary of the innings.

Radley went on to record a quick-fire 18 from 19 balls, but she was the only Mil Lel batter to reach double figures as the visitors were restricted to 7/64 from its 20 overs.

Melanie Jarrett did the most damage picking up 2/2 from her three overs, while Smith, McCathy and Robertson also picked up wickets in the comfortable 49 run win.

The afternoon battle between North Sportsman’s and Naracoorte was a more high-scoring affair as the opposing batters filled their boots.

The Tigers were sent in and only two names reached double figures, but they made sure they left a lasting impact on the contest.

North’s innings could not have suffered a more traumatic start after a mix up between the openers forced Elizabeth Plew to depart the crease for a two-ball duck.

Alysha Coon hung around for 23 balls, but struggled to beat the fielding scoring two runs before chipping the ball into the bowler’s hands.

At 2/18 after 6.3 overs the Tigers were limping, but yet again captain Fiona Young played an inspirational innings.

Young showed confidence from the moment she entered the middle hitting two early fours to get the scoreboard ticking.

Remaining opener Chelsea Gabriel had already showed some promise and followed in Young’s stride.

The North captain was in an aggressive mood and struck a hat-trick of fours before bringing up her half century in style with a towering six.

After 57 game-changing runs from just 42 balls Young decided it was time to retire with her team in the strong position of 2/114 with four overs to go.

Despite Gabriel batting through the entire 20 overs to finish up with 30 and Sarah Nieuwenhuizen hitting a couple of late boundaries, Naracoorte managed to keep the Tigers under 150.

However, 4/137 was still an imposing target and Naracoorte made life a bit harder for itself after not finding the boundary rope until the final ball of the sixth over.

Sile Legoe struggled to get going before being caught out from Alysha Coon, while her opening partner Charli Schroder had even more trouble scoring quickly and was eventually caught and bowled by Kirra Schultz.

Naracoorte was keeping its dream alive having kept its run rate around the run-a-ball mark, but were struggling to keep wickets in hand after Liz Schroder fell for 30 off 35.

With scoreboard pressure increasing the North attack put the clamps on to effectively finish Naracoorte’s hopes of chasing down the runs.

The writing was on the wall once captain Jane Gaussen and Angela Donnelly fell in back-to-back balls which meant Langley’s late hitting was never going to be enough as the Tigers triumphed by 18 runs.

Young, Coon, Schultz and Nieuwnhuizen all claimed wickets.

The SE Female Open Age Cricket League returns to the Blue Lake City this weekend where one of North and Bordertown will suffer their first loss of the season, while Mil Lel hosts Naracoorte.