Month: February 2023

Perth Scorchers Win The BBL

An account of the final of the Big Bash League, and a photo gallery highlighted by a Little Egret.

Today saw the final of the 12th instalment of the Big Bash League. The two teams to make it were Perth Scorchers who did it the easy way, winning the league stage and then beating Sydney Sixers to qualify for the final, and Brisbane Heat who did it the hard way, sneaking into fifth and last qualifying slot (I am glad to report by the way that this is the last occasion on which five teams out of eight will qualify for the knock outs), and then winning three straight games to join the Scorchers in the final. Perth had home advantage for the final.

THE BRISBANE HEAT INNINGS

Brisbane Heat won the bat flip and decided to bat first. The first two overs were extraordinary – in the first Josh Brown scored 13, with three fours, all off the edge and with little or no control of the shot and all off decent deliveries. He added another 12 off the first five balls of the second, in more orthodox fashion and then mistimed a drive off the sixth ball of the over and was caught – 25-1 after two overs, Brown 25 (12). The second wicket pairing then had a decent partnership and at the halfway stage Heat were 86-1, and looking at 180-190, with possibly half an eye even on 200. Then came the five over spell which in retrospect cost Heat the match – in overs 11-15, which included their Power Surge (an unmitigated disaster for them – 8-2 from those two overs) they managed just 33 runs and lost two wickets. They had a decent last five overs, and ultimately had 175 to defend.

THE PERTH SCORCHERS RESPONSE

Little went right for Scorchers in the first 10 overs, and they were 62-3 at the halfway stage. However, they had a superb third quarter to their innings, ending the 15th over, which was also their first Power Surge over, on 119-3, exactly where Heat had been at the same stage of their innings. Two quick wickets, those of the two set batters, the second a horrendous run out seemed to have killed their hopes stone dead, but then Cooper Connolly joined Nick Hobson, the latter culpable in the run out referred to earlier. Connolly, still in his teens, was especially impressive, and between them the sixth wicket pair reduced the ask to 10 off the final over. Michael Neser, at the opposite end of the experience spectrum to Connolly, bowled it. Connolly took a single off the first ball, Hobson just cleared the boundary off the second, and then hit a throughly convincing four off the third and Scorchers had won the match and were BBL winners for a fifth time. This edition of the BBL has been patchy (and some would say that such a description is generous on my part) but the final was match worthy of such an occasion. The vast majority of T20 matches, enjoyable as they often are while they happen, are distinctly unmemorable, a charge that cannot be levelled at this one. A full scorecard can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS INCLUDING AN ADDITION TO ‘BIRDS SEEN IN 2023’

Today, on my way home from an expedition to King’s Lynn town centre I saw a Little Egret dabbling at the edge of the Gaywood River (in the section between Kettlewell Lane and Loke Road, which I often pass as it is close to a route that scores highly on ‘main road avoidance’, crossing a couple but not involving spending any more time than that alongside such a road). I start my usual sign off with new sighting…

Though not a first sighting of the year this cormorant was in an unusual location for such a bird – the section of the Gaywood closest to the train station.

England End ODI Series in South Africa With a Victory

A look back at England’s consolation win over South Africa in the final match of the ODI series, a description of a walk and a load of photographs,

On Wednesday England and South Africa played the third and final match of their ODI series in South Africa. South Africa had already won the series having won the first two matches.

ENGLAND 14-3 AND THEN…

South Africa won the toss and put England into bat. In the early stages they would have had few doubts about the correctness of this decision as England were 14-3 early on. Then Jos Buttler joined Dawid Malan and England began to fight back. At the 30 over mark England were 149-3. Overs 31-40 yielded a further 90 runs, and both set batters were still there. England’s hopes of a really substantial total suffered a setback in the 41st over, when Dawid Malan was out, to end an England all time record ODI 4th wicket stand. In the event dome bright hitting from the lower middle order batters boosted the England total a a mightily impressive 346-7.

ARCHER FINDS HIS MARK

Much of the interest in England’s defence of their total centred on Jofra Archer, in the side in place of Olly Stone and hoping to demonstrate that injury woes that no so long ago seemed to have put his international career in jeopardy were behind him. Archer bowled magnificently, being consistently the quickest bowler on either side and making a number of crucial interventions. When Markram and Klaasen were threatening he dismissed Klaasen, and then followed up by dislodging the dangerous David Miller cheaply. Similarly when Klaasen and Jansen looked threatening it was once again Archer who broke the stand. It was only fitting that the delivery early in the 42nd over of the South African innings that claimed their last wicket was bowled by Archer. South Africa were all out for 287, beaten by 59 runs, and Archer, just into the last of his 10 allotted overs, had claimed 6-40 on his return to international action.

A TERRIBLE PLAYER OF THE MATCH AWARD DECISION

In a match in which 633 runs were scored in just over 91 overs a bowler taking six cheap wickets, including removing several batters just as they were starting to look dangerous, should be a sh00-in for the Player of the Match award. However, cricket is a batter’s game, and Jos Buttler’s century allied to three catches behind the stumps got him the award. The simple fact is that without Archer’s bowling Buttler’s runs would have counted for nothing – it was only the fact that largely due to Archer SA were bowled out that prevented England’s total from being overhauled – SA were up with the rate almost all the way through their innings, and never dangerously far adrift of it.

BOOSTING THE PHOTO GALLERY

I already had quite a few photos to share from earlier in the week, and today, although the weather was not as pleasant for walking as it had been on Tuesday and Wednesday yielded plenty more. I had decided that today was the day to put in a repeat prescription form, which meant there was one fixed point on my travels, but otherwise I could pick out my own route. I set off from the back door of my home, headed past the two ponds close to it, then along the Gaywood where it flows past the Kettlewell Lane trees, across Littleport Street, down past Highgate Methodist Chapel, across another section of the Gaywood and on past the station and an ASLEF picket line, and through the walks to where I had to drop off the prescription request. I then headed for the Broad Walk, which I followed through the Guanock Gate before diverging through the Vancouver Garden and then along the path that cuts diagonally across the Recreation Field before joining St John’s Walk where the latter meets Tennyson Avenue. I crossed Tennyson Avenue and walked along the path that runs between the grounds of King Edward VII Academy on one side and the King’s Lynn Academy on the other and then crossed Gaywood Road, and continued on past Lynn Sport until I reached Bawsey Drain, which I then followed to its junction with Columbia Way, before walking about half of the next section and then turning back. I followed Columbia Way as far as Greenpark Avenue and then headed down that road and walked a tiny section of the Gaywood River Path before heading back home by way of the Discovery Centre. In total I was out and about for approximately two hours, and got some decent photographs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

A blue plaque giving current Northwest Norfolk MP James Wild appropriate levels of respect.
Today’s photos start here.
This deer was too far distant to make an ideal subject, but I did my best.