England Women Book Semi-Final Slot

Yesterday’s match at the women’s cricket world cup saw England facing hosts India at Indore. This post looks back at a remarkable match.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone were recovered from the sickness that kept them out of England’s previous match, so England were back at full strength. India had opted to bolster their bowling. Natalie Sciver-Brunt won the toss and decided, to some surprise, that England would bat first.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont gave England a solid start, and then the rest of the England innings was dominated by a command performance from former skipper Heather Knight. Knight, well supported by current skipper Sciver-Brunt who helped the third wicket to put on 115 at better than a run a ball, took a mere 86 balls to reach her third career ODI hundred and first against India. After Sciver-Brunt was out we saw a familiar scene as Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb and Alice Capsey all fell cheaply – the England numbers 5,6 and 7 have a combined aggregate of 111 runs between them for the tournament so far, and then a second familiar scene as Charlie Dean ensured that the good early phase of the innings was entirely wasted by scoring a rapid undefeated 19 to boost the final total to 288, not massive on a good pitch but surely defensible.

THE INDIAN CHASE

For much this innings it looked like the hosts were heading to a comfortable win. In particular when the two left handers, Smriti Mandhana and all rounder Deepti Sharma were both going well England looked beaten for all money. Then Mandhana had a rush of blood to the head against Linsey Smith and holed out to Alice Capsey for 88 off 94 balls to make it 234-4 in the 42nd over and open up a possible way back in to things for England. Richa Ghosh never got going and managed a mere 8, caught by former skipper Knight off the bowling of current incumbent Sciver-Brunt to make it 256-5 in the 46th over. It was in the following over that England got the breakthrough that put them ahead on points for the first time in a long while, when Deepti Sharma, who had batted very well for her 50, got over aggressive against Ecclestone, who by her own lofty standards had had a poor time with the ball, and was caught by Dunkley to make it 265-6. With two overs to go India needed 23, and England were definitely favourites. The first ball of the 49th over, bowled by Lauren Bell, went for four, but the tall seamer came back well in the rest of the over, and India needed 14 off the final over, with Linsey Smith, England’s most economical bowler on the day, to bowl it. Smith bowled a superb over, and by the time the fifth ball had gone for a mere two runs India needed eight to tie off the last ball of the match, meaning that in effect Smith only had to bowl a legal delivery for England to get the win that would secure their semi-final berth. She did so, and it was hit for four irrelevant runs, meaning that England had won by four runs and became the third side to book a semi-final slot. India meanwhile are now in serious jeopardy of suffering the fate of the England men in 1999 – being ejected early from their own party. Even with that final irrelevant four Linsey Smith’s figures were 10-0-40-1, absolutely crucial to England’s success, though unsurprisingly Knight was named Player of the Match for her century. Scorecard here, and a for the numbers people here is Hypocaust’s post.

PHOTOGRAPHS

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