Dingwall Academy pupil Mollie Parker helps Scotland under-19 women qualify for Cricket World Cup in Malaysia and Thailand
Two North of Scotland cricket representatives were in Aberdeen at the end of last week as Scotland hosted the Netherlands in a series of matches.
Mollie Parker, who plays for Northern Counties Cricket Club in Inverness, featured in all three matches for the under-19s as they looked to qualify for the World Cup in Malaysia and Thailand next January.
The first match ended in a dominant victory for Scotland, who claimed a 10-wicket victory with Parker one of the shining stars of the match.
Bowling first, Parker took three scalps including two in the second over of the match – clean bowling opener Lotte Schmidt, before dismissing Carlijn van Koolwijk for a duck two balls later.
The 16-year-old then claimed her third wicket, with the final ball of her four overs, bowling Pien Oost to round off a spell that saw the Highlander awarded the player of the match.
While Parker did not have as big of a role to play in the second match of the three the next day, taking no wickets but only conceding nine runs from her four overs, another victory for Scotland meant that they qualified for the 2025 Cricket World Cup.
The third match would see a change of tactic as Scotland batted first instead of bowling, and they set the Netherlands a target of 145 to win with Parker not needed to bat.
She would open the bowling though, taking 1-8 from her four overs to help contain the Dutch and help Scotland to a 64-run victory – and a series sweep.
While Parker was delivering the goods on the pitch, there was another Highlander at Mannofield as Nairn-based umpire Kim Neill was also at the matches.
She was shadowing international umpires by sitting in on meetings to see how they deal with controversial situations on and off the field and what the expectations are from the International Cricket Council.
Neill worked alongside Suzanne Redfern, Anna Harris, Iain McDonald and match referee Sarah Bartlett.
Also in Aberdeen last week governing body Cricket Scotland launched their four-year strategy to 2028, which includes a particular focus on inspiring women and girls to take up the sport.
