Opening boundaries: UKAF women highlight gender equality in sport with fixture in Derbyshire

The UK Armed Forces women's cricket team have beaten a Bowling Out Gender Inequality (BOGI) team in Derbyshire in a T20 match designed to raise awareness of gender equality in sport.

The match, played at Derbyshire's County Ground, has been a regular fixture for UKAF since 2016 and was previously held at Yorkshire's Headingley Stadium.

The message is simple: to allow women equal opportunities in cricket as well as other sports.

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"The important message today is the importance of getting women into sport," said Commander Hazelle Garton, who is UKAF's team manager.

"That's what this match is all about against BOGI. That's Bowling Out Gender Inequality and making sure that those opportunities are available for everybody no matter their gender, their background or their heritage.

"Just making sure we can get people out playing sport and understanding what that brings to them as individuals.

"It's teamwork, showing leadership, grit, resilience, determination and all of those great things you need in the military and in wider society as well."

Opening Boundaries is a charity set up with the aim to give young women and girls, many of whom come from an ethnic minority background, the opportunity to play.

Their director, Halima Khan, said: "We look at the rise of the women's game in the last decade. We've seen huge number of women.

"I don't think it's just what we do, but we along with many other organisations like the county, clubs and the ECB are all just trying to raise the women's game."

UKAF win by 10 runs

The match started with the military team winning the toss and choosing to bat first, with the Army's pair of sisters, Georgina and Connie Cant, opening the order.

It was Connie Cant who impressed the most, delivering 34 runs from 20 deliveries and she was helped by three other players reaching double figures.

It wasn't the biggest total at 128/9 but UKAF had confidence in their bowling attack to get the wickets needed for a victory.

Three BOGI players reached solid totals above 20 runs, but the rest of the order was dismantled by good performances from Connie Cant, who grabbed three wickets, and wicketkeeper Lois Thornton who played a hand in a few more dismissals.

In the end, BOGI fell short of their target by 10 runs and the win was a hard-fought contest for UKAF.