THE Western Spirit are the Under 15 Youth Premier League Champions for 2021/22, defeating the South East Bayside Breakers in the final.

After an early rain delay, the match was shortened to 33 overs. The Breakers won the toss and send the Spirit into bat.

Although they lost their first wicket for only 17 runs, things vastly improved after that. Holly Nagpal and Mia Gordon put on a 98-run partnership to really steady the Spirit innings. They lost a couple more cheap wickets before ultimately posting a very competitive 4/169 off their 33 overs. Nagpal and Gordon were the stars with the bat for the Spirit. Nagpal put on 73 while Gordon fell one run short of a half century.

For the Breakers, Zoe Samuel, Dia Shah and Riva Guliya all took one wicket each.

In reply, the Breakers did not get off to a start that was much better than the Spirit did. They lost their first wicket at 1/19, but then lost too many wickets for too few runs. They struggled to put decent partnerships together and in the end could only make 7/125 off their 33 overs.

Amelie O’Meara made 40 and Shah made 25, but apart from Holly Lurie they were the only ones to make a double figure score for the Breakers.

For the Spirit on the other hand, Lou Lou Field was the best of the bowlers. She took 2/16 off six overs, which included a maiden. Mira Diab and Ava Spiteri each took one wicket for the Spirit.

The Youth Premier League is the new name for what used to be known as the Cricket Victoria underage State Championships. Yesterday’s final was the culmination of a week of action between the various different geography-based regions from right across Victoria. They are split into two conferences – Renegades (any region between the western suburbs of Melbourne and the South Australian border), and Stars (any region east of the centre of Melbourne).