Category: Cricket

Two Wins For England Cricket Teams

A look back at victories by the England men’s and women’s cricket teams, a mention of an upcoming auction and a photo gallery.

Last night saw the third T20I in a five match series between the England and New Zealand teams, while this morning, though it should have been just less than halfway through the match saw the last knockings of the first of three test matches between the England and West Indies men’s teams. This post looks at both games.

VALE ATQUE AVE

The test match at Lord’s was the last appearance at that level of the legendary James Anderson, who made his test debut as long ago as 2003. England have decided to look to the future, and gave Anderson this match so that he could bow out in front of a home crowd. It also saw the arrival on the test scene of Gus Atkinson, the Surrey fast bowler. In terms of the result it was the new comer who had the bigger say (and how!)

In my previous post I mentioned Atkinson’s first innings brilliance (7-45) and the fact that England were going well in response. While I was at work yesterday England continued to progress with the bat – Crawley, Pope, Root, Brook and the other debutant, Jamie Smith, selected as keeper although he is not Surrey’s first choice in that role all made 50s, though none managed to reach 80. Smith’s 70 on debut included a significant increase in scoring pace when he was left with the tail. The West Indies second innings got underway yesterday evening, and the skids were soon under it in no uncertain terms. Stokes took two early wickets, Anderson one and Atkinson one. Late in the day two further scalps fell, a second to Anderson and a second to Atkinson giving the debutant nine for the match to that point. West Indies were 79-6 when that wicket rang down the curtain on day two (although an extra half hour can be claimed if a result is possible that usually only enters the equation if seven or more wickets are down). It also ensured that James Anderson would finish behind Warne in the all time test wicket takers list. Atkinson and Anderson resumed bowling this morning, and it was Anderson who had the first success with a beauty that took the edge of Josh da Silva’s bat and went through to Smith. Thereafter however it was the Atkinson show. First Alzarri Joseph took on a short ball and succeeded only in giving Duckett catching practice, then Atkinson bowled Shamar Joseph to make it 103-9. At that point Atkinson had match figures of 11-86, and if he could take the final wicket and concede 15 or fewer runs in the process he would set a new record for an England debutant, beating the 12-102 taking by Fred ‘Nutty’ Martin way back in 1890 (Jack Ferris took 13 in his first match for England, but he had previously played for Australia, and it would have been news to him that he was playing that match for England since it was on a privately organized tour of South Africa and was only granted test status some years later). A combination of luck and some decent batting by Gudakesh Motie robbed him of that, but when Jayden Seales, the number 11, was caught by Duckett, fielding at long leg, Atkinson had his second five-for of the match, and final figures of 12-106 (7-45, 5-61), the second best ever for England, and a number of wickets beaten by only two test debutants in history, Narendra Hirwani (India, 16-136) and Bob Massie (Australia 16-137). Anderson’s final bowling effort was 3-32 from 16 overs, meaning that he ended with 704 test wickets overall. England’s winning margin was an innings and 114 runs – WI 121, ENG 371, WI 136. Atkinson was, as I said in a tweet shortly after the final wicket fell, the ONLY candidate for Player of the Match and was duly confirmed as such. A scorecard of this match can be seen here.

In theory the question for England is now which of Potts or Pennington comes in for Anderson (Sam Cook is currently injured, so his call up must wait). However, I would boldly select both, leaving out Woakes who contributed little at his favourite ground.

A TALE OF TWO SOPHIES

England won the toss and chose to field. The New Zealand innings was dominated by two players named Sophie. Sophie Devine scored 58 not out off 42 balls to give New Zealand 141 to defend, and the main reason that total wasn’t higher was Sophie Ecclestone, who finished with 4-0-25-4. The first of those four wickets, that of Suzie Bates, kept an astonishing run going – it made it 33 consecutive international bowling innings in which the left armer had claimed at least one wicket. Later in that same opening over she snared Amelia Kerr, and in the later stages of the innings she clean bowled each of Isabella Gaze and Leigh Kasperek. Although England only had four balls to spare when they scored the winning run, they had six wickets standing. The batting star was Alice Capsey whose 67* (60) undergirded the chase. It was Capsey who was named player of the match ahead of Ecclestone. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before I get to my usual sign off, I sent out a bulk email about the upcoming railway models auction at work yesterday. I will not include the full thing here, but you can view a full catalogue and/or sign up to bid here or here. The image I used to accompany the email is below.

Now for the main gallery…

West Indies Under the Pump

A look at developments so far on day one of the England v West Indies test match, dominated by an extraordinary debut performance from Gus Atkinson. Also a photo gallery.

Today is day one of the opening test match of the series between England and West Indies, which is happening at Lord’s. This post looks at the action so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Both playing XIs were known in advance, England’s on Monday, West Indies’ yesterday. England had gone for batting depth, with Woakes at number eight, while the West Indies had opted for extra bowling strength, and both Holder at number six and da Silva at number seven looked to be a place too high in their order for comfort. England won the toss and elected to field first.

THE MORNING SESSION

James Anderson in his final test match took the new ball in partnership with Woakes. West Indies got through 10 overs without losing a wicket, at which point Gus Atkinson came on for his first bowl in test cricket. Atkinson immediately showed the extra pace that had been the reason for his selection, and struck with his second ball, Kraigg Brathwaite dragging it on to his stumps. West Indies got through the rest of the over, but Atkinson avoided conceding any runs. Atkinson’s second over was also a maiden, and in his third he struck again, having Kirk McKenzie caught by Crawley. By the end of this over his figures were 3-3-0-2. Harry Brook held a sensational catch off Ben Stokes to get debutant opener Mikyle Louis, the first ever test cricketer to hail from St Kitts, although its sister island of Nevis has produced a few, for 27. That was 44-3, and Alick Athenaze and Kavem Hodge saw things through to lunch, with the score 61-3.

POST LUNCH

After the interval this pair advanced the score to 88 before Atkinson’s already impressive debut became a truly great one. He got Athenaze and Holder in successive deliveries, and although da Silva prevented the hat trick he was out second ball to make it three in four for Atkinson and a five-for in test debut. In the next over Kavem Hodge donated his wicket to an umimpressive Woakes, basically giving Pope catching practice, and that was 88-7 with four wickets having gone at the same score. Alzarri Joseph had a bit of fun before trying one aggressive shot too many and holing out to Woakes off Atkinson for the debutant’s sixth scalp. That was 106-8, and it was soon 106-9 as Shamar Joseph played the worst shot of the innings to give Pope his second catch. Atkinson at this point had 7-36 and was on for setting a record for the best bowling figures by an England debutant, but a combination of Gudakesh Motie scoring runs off him with a mix of luck and skill and James Anderson pinning Seales LBW to end the innings at 121 left him with 7-45, second best behind Dominic Cork’s 7-43 in 1995 (also against West Indies). However Cork’s effort had come in West Indies second innings, so Atkinson did have the best ever first innings figures by an England debutant. Ben Duckett has fallen cheaply, playing a loose shot at Seales and edging to keeper da Silva. However Crawley and Pope are going well together at the moment, with the score currently 58-1. While I have been preparing this for publication England have moved on to 71. An appeal for LBW against Pope has just been upheld, but has gone for review. However the replay shows the ball missing the wicket. England 71-1, already within 50 of first innings parity.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I wasn’t sure about the highlight of this gallery until while I was out walking during the lunch interval I saw this hedgehog near Kettlewell Lane.
I got closer, while taking care not to cause stress.

The England XI For The First Test Match

A look at the England XI for the upcoming test match against the West indies, which was annoucned today, two days in advance of the match starting.

The England Men’s Playing XI for the test match against the West Indies that is due to start at Lord’s on Wednesday has been announced. In batting order it is: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, *Ben Stokes, +Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson. This will be Anderson’s last game for England. This post gives my thoughts on the final XI.

THE BATTING

Jamie Smith deserves his elevation to the test ranks, but I would not have made him wicket keeper, a role he does not usually play for his county. I also think that number seven is not an ideal slot for him – he is a regular number four for his county, and I would have preferred to see Stokes put himself at number seven and allow Smith to bat a place higher at number six. Woakes has a fine record in England but is an unlikely tourist, and his selection smacks more than a little of hypocrisy given that Anderson’s retirement has been effectively forced since the selectors want to look to the future.

THE BOWLING

The bowling looks thin and will look even thinner if Stokes’ knee plays up enough ton prevent him from bowling. The only member of the attack capable of producing genuinely quick deliveries is Atkinson, with Anderson for all his advanced (by international cricket standards) years probably still quicker than Woakes, and Stokes if he bowls no longer seriously quick. Bashir did well enough in India, but there is little reason to believe that he will be especially tricky to play on English pitches. Dillon Pennington and Matthew Potts, both in the squad and both left out of the final XI can feel hard done by, as can left arm spinner Jack Leach, now officially confirmed as being below Bashir in the selectors pecking order. I would have placed more reliance on that powerful top seven than has actually been done and had one or other of Potts or Pennington playing in place of Woakes. The West Indies are not among the most formidable of test foes right now, and I would still expect this XI to be good enough against them, but I cannot pretend to be impressed by it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (don’t forget – if you want to view pictures at a larger size just click on one)…

No cormorants today, but oystercatchers…
…and this egret.
The gulls did a good job of cleaning out this discarded crab shell!
Two dragonflies of different species…
…this green one…
…and this mainly dark blue one.

Different Format, Same Result

Yesterday, following on from the ODI series that in which England Women comfortably won all three matches the T20I series between the England and New Zealand women’s teams got underway.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

England found themselves batting first. They were given a strong start by Danni Wyatt and Maia Bouchier, the former being preferred in T20Is to Tammy Beaumont, who was in the commentary box instead. Bouchier’s dismissal brought Natalie Sciver-Brunt to the crease, and she immediately put the Kiwis to the sword, making even Wyatt look somewhat pedestrian by comparison. Wyatt entered the record books when she brought up her 17th T20I 50, moving ahead of Sarah Taylor to the top of the England list of makers of such scores. Sciver-Brunt was already into the 40s by then, but she finally fell just short of 50. The left handed Freya Kemp maintained the momentum. Wyatt’s innings ended for 76. England finished with 197-3 from their 20 overs.

THE NEW ZEALAND RESPONSE

New Zealand started fairly well, although they were always behind the required rate. As had been a regular theme of the ODI series it was the spinners (of whom England had no fewer than four for this match, with a series in Bangladesh coming up in the futures) who applied a chokehold from which the Kiwis could not escape. At 63-1 New Zealand seemed to be faring respectably, especially given that the only one to go, Georgia Plimmer, had been run out, her third such dismissal in four innings. Once the second wicket fell however the floodgates opened, with leg spinner Sarah Glenn claiming three scalps in a single over, and Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone picking up a wicket the score soon read 67-6. Jess Kerr, sister of leg spinning all rounder Amelia Kerr, batted in a manner that should have caused some of the more senior Kiwi batters no little embarrassment, making 38 to give the Kiwis a hint of respectability. Near the end the fourth front line England spinner, Linsey Smith, picked up a wicket. New Zealand finished with 138-9, beaten by 59 runs, which in a T20 is an absolute pummelling. Scorecard here.

PIZZA MAKING

Today there was a Pizza making session for autistic adults at the King’s Lynn branch of Pizza Express. Great fun was had by all, and my Pizza was certainly good.

The base in the tray in which the pizza would be cooked.
The base loaded with toppings.
The last pre-cook addition – some oregano.
Dough laid out for the pizza makers.
My particular piece of dough.
The base, before removing the flour.

The above show stages in the preparation of the pizza, and below is the final outcome…

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off, in two parts, from yesterday and today…

Part 2…

Surrey Versus the Clock

Today is the final day of a round of County Championship fixtures. The tie of the round has been the top of the table clash between Surrey and Essex. This post looks at goings on there and elsewhere.

SURREY v ESSEX

Surrey scored 262 batting first with Jamie Smith, newly elevated to England’s test ranks (albeit as new keeper, rather than in his best role of specialist batter), scoring exactly 100. Essex were restricted to 180 in reply, Paul Walter top scoring with 64. Jordan Clark took 3-33, Daniel Worrall 3-40, and there were two wickets for James Taylor and one for Tom Lawes. When Essex had Surrey 127-6 in their second innings, 70 of them from Smith, it looked like they were in the contest, but Ryan Patel scored a century, enabling the last four wickets to add 151. The last two wickets added 85 of those, and Taylor at 10 and Worrall at 11 scored 3 and 4 respectively, such was Patel’s dominance and manipulation of the strike at that stage of proceedings. That left Essex needing 361 to win, and by the close of day three they were 21-2. There has been some rain today, but in the cricket that has been possible Surrey have claimed three wickets, Tom Lawes getting Matt Critchley and Tom Westley in successive balls, both caught behind by Foakes, and just recently Worrall claiming the key scalp of former South Africa test opener Dean Elgar for 60. Essex are 121-5 at present, 240 short of an always unlikely looking target, and with only five wickets left.

ELSEWHERE

There are two potential big run chases going on. In division one Somerset are 163-3 in pursuit of a target of 410 to beat Warwickshire. In division two Glamorgan were set a massive 593 by Gloucestershire, and although that still looks highly unlikely the Welsh side are 397-5 as I type, 196 short of their target. Sam Northeast has a ton to his name, a feat already achieved in the innings by Marnus Labuschagne. Supporting Northeast at the moment is all rounder Dan Douthwaite.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Three dragonflies from two species in a single shot. I have chosen this as the feature image.

A Thriller and a Display of Dominance

Over the weekend I followed the whole of one classic T20 match and the first innings of a very one sided One Day International (I missed the second innings as there was a family get together happening in Wells Next The Sea which I wanted to be part of). This post looks at both games.

THE MENS T20 WORLD CUP FINAL

This match would see history made whoever won it – India and South Africa, the two teams to make the final were both undefeated, and no side had ever gone through a Men’s T20 world cup undefeated. India batted first and their innings had its up and downs. The dominant feature was Virat Kohli’s one and only major innings of the tournament. They ended up with 176 to defend. South Africa batted well in their turn. They seemed to have settled the matter decisively when the 15th over, bowled by Kuldeep Yadav was butchered for 24 runs reducing the requirement from 54 off six overs to 30 off five overs. This virtually forced Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to turn to his best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. The 16th over was economical, but no wickets fell, so South Africa still looked favourites. The 17th over kept India in contention, and saw them claim the vital wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. For the 18th over Sharma rightly opted to use Bumrah’s last over, hoping to close things out then. Bumrah not only kept it tight as always, but also got rid of Marco Jansen, which meant that with the required rate starting to become genuinely alarming for them the South Africans had only David Miller of their recognized batters left. Arshdeep Singh bowled the crucial 19th over, and by the end of it South Africa needed 16 off the last over, though Miller was at the strikers end. Hardik Pandya bowled the final over, and off the first ball thereof Miller went for a big shot down the ground and Suryakumar Yadav took a brilliant running catch to all but seal the match. Number nine Kagiso Rabada did his best, but another catch by Suryakumar Yadav off the penultimate ball of the match accounted for him, and South Africa needed nine off one ball to win. Nortje scored a single off the final ball and India won by seven runs (176-7 plays 169-8). In spite of South Africa’s reputation in global tournaments it has to be stated that THIS WAS NOT A CHOKE – India bowled superbly in the closing overs, and held a couple of excellent catches. This match was settled by good Indian cricket, not bad South African cricket. Scorecard here.

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN IN A SPIN

This was the second match of a three match ODI series between the England and New Zealand women’s teams, taking place at New Road, Worcester. New Zealand found themselves batting first as they had in the first match in which they were thoroughly hammered. At 114-3 with Amelia Kerr set and Maddy Green looking impressive as well they had a chance of a competitive total, but then the world’s number one and two ranked Women’s ODI bowlers, Sophie Ecclestone (left arm orthodox spin) and Charlie Dean (off spin) made their presences felt. Dean started the rout by pinning Green LBW, then Ecclestone got Brooke Halliday for six and Lauren Down for a duck, both clean bowled. Dean then got the big wicket of Amelia Kerr, caught and bowled for 43. Then a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt off Ecclestone accounted for Kiwi keeper Isabella Gaze for a duck, and three balls later Ecclestone clean bowled Molly Penfold for another duck to secure her fifth wicket, and 114-3 had become 124-9. Jess Kerr hit her way to 14, boosting the final total to 141 in company with Fran Jonas, before a second Sciver-Brunt catch, this time off the off spin of Alice Capsey ended the innings. Ecclestone has taken at least one wicket in each of her last 30 bowling innings across formats, a run going back to the start of 2023, and overall in those 30 innings she has taken 68 wickets at 14.75 a piece.

I missed the England run chase, but I do know that it was such an utter formality that Natalie Sciver-Brunt was able to engineer things at the end so that Maia Bouchier scored her first senior century (she has previously reached three figures in a U13s match). Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The T20 World Cup Semi-finals

A look back at the T20 World Cup semi-finals and a photo gallery.

Yesterday was semi-finals day at the T20 World Cup. This post looks back at the two matches.

AFGHANISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA

This match was played in Trinidad, starting at 1:30AM Thursday UK time (8:30PM Wednesday Trinidad time). Unfortunately it was ruined by the fact that the ground staff had failed miserably to produce a surface that was fit for cricket. Some of the pitches in New York in the early part of the tournament were difficult to bat on, but the difficulties while some moaned about them were fundamentally fair. The pitch at Trinidad for this important match was blatantly unfair, with extremely variable bounce (swing, seam movement or spin can be countered, and they do not put batters personal safety at risk, variable bounce does, and it is impossible to get in the right position to play your shots because there is no means of knowing what the right position will be). Afghanistan in the face of South Africa’s powerful pace attack subsided to 56 all out, which South Africa chased down for the loss of only one wicket. Obviously Afghanistan were well short of a defensible total, but on that track I reckon another 40 runs for them would have had South Africa sweating. For Afghanistan it was a sad end to what has been a great tournament for them. They have a good bowling unit and two batters who are indisputably of the highest class in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. There is a suspicion of a soft underbelly to the batting – almost all their significant scores have featured major contributions from one or other of the top two. For South Africa this was the end of a miserable run of losses in semi-finals of global competitions – they had reached seven previous semi-finals across formats and never won one.

ENGLAND V INDIA

This match was scheduled to start at 3:30PM at Providence, Guyana. This would have meant that I missed a lot of it with Thursday being a work day. However the start wads delayed by rain, and there was a second rain delay part way through the Indian innings. This match did not have a reserve day, but with a 10:30AM local time start they had a lot of leeway on the one available day – 250 minutes of spare time was allotted for weather interruptions (these morning starts were chosen with little regard for local fans because they fit with peak TV viewing times in India). India put up a decent total that soon looked very impressive as England mad an absolute hash of attempting to chase it. An overly zealous devotion to the concept of ‘match ups’ led to left handers Moeen Ali and Sam Curran being promoted up the order, the problem with this being that neither is actually a good enough batter to belong high in the order. Liam Livingstone who had bowled well with his mixed spin (he can bowl both off breaks and leg breaks and varies them according to who is facing) was England’s last serious hope with the bat, but Jofra Archer failed to respond to his call, resulting in a run out that left England miles adrift and with only bowlers left. India thus won very comfortably and will face of against South Africa in Barbados tomorrow.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A damselfly on the edge of a lily pad. These are smaller and have more diaphanous wings than the dragonflies.
The first of many dragonflies

T20 World Cup Semifinal Line Up

A look at the semi-final line up at the T20 World Cup and at a couple of extraordinary moments in the county championship. Also a photo gallery.

This post looks back at the concluding stages of the Super Eights at the T20 World Cup.

INDIA V AUSTRALIA

India were almost certainly already qualified, while Australia having suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Afghanistan were in need of a win. In the event a spectacular 92 off 41 balls from Rohit Sharma gave India a position of control they never wholly lost, and with Arshdeep singh, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah all having fine evenings with the ball they duly made it three wins out of three, placing Australia in considerable jeopardy as attention switched to…

AFGHANISTAN V BANGLADESH

Any victory would be enough for Afghanistan to qualify, but Bangladesh needed to inflict an absolute hammering on Afghanistan to qualify – if they won, but not by enough, they Afghanistan and Australia would all be on one win out of three and Australia’s net run rate would see them through. Thus although this match was on at a horribly inconvenient time for me there was no way I was missing it. Afghanistan batted first and managed a moderate 115. The calculations revealed that to qualify for the semi-finals Bangladesh had to knock this target off in 12.1 overs. There were moments when it looked like they might do this, but playing with such naked aggression increases the chances of wickets falling, and that also happened. The rain also made itself felt several times, though Bangladesh only lost one over of the chase and the victory target only changed to 114. The closing stages cricket wise were a battle between Afghanistan’s bowlers and Litton Das, who fought his was to a half century for Bangladesh. While Das was highly impressive the wickets of team mates fell regularly, though it was only when the eighth went down that Afghanistan would have felt at all comfortable. There was one comedy moment when Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott shouted to his players to slow things down (there was rain about and Afghanistan were ahead on DLS), and Gulbadin Naib thinking that the instruction was to ‘go down’, rather than ‘slow down’ feigned cramp, going down as though he had been shot (it was so badly done that not even a premiership football referee would have bought it!). Eventually, with the Bangladesh score at 105, Gulbadin Naib got through Mustafizur Rahman’s defences to pin the Bangladesh number 11 LBW. He reviewed it for form’s sake, but Afghanistan were already celebrating their progression to the semi-finals, and it did not take long for the third umpire to confirm that those celebrations were justified. This means that Afghanistan and South Africa will play the first semi-final in the small hours of tomorrow morning UK time, and England and India will contest the second, starting at 3:30PM UK time tomorrow. Not very long after there was speculation that Australia might help Scotland to progress at England’s expense it is the folks from Down Under who are heading home early, while England are still involved in the tournament.

A COUPLE OF HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CHAMPIONSHIP

While the T20 World Cup has been going on there has been a temporary break in the T20 Blast for some County Championship action. Surrey beat Worcestershire by an innings just before 1PM today. Dan Lawrence had a superb match, leading Surrey’s progress to 490, including a 38 run over against Shoaib Malik, and taking wickets in both Worcestershire innings. That 38, assisted by a n0-ball was a joint record for English domestic cricket, shared with Andrew Flintoff who had a similar over at the expense of Alex Tudor of Surrey. However Lewis Kimber of Leicestershire in the course of almost enabling his side to chase a target of 464 rewrote the record books at the expense of Oliver Edward Robinson. The tall medium pacer who has some England experience bowled an over that yielded 43. There were three no-balls along the way. The overall record was set in New Zealand, but the bowler was complicit, being under orders to leak runs and bowling a 22 delivery over that yielded 77 in all! Incidentally that 22 deliveries is not the longest ever first class over – John Human once had a 30 delivery over, which was moreover a maiden according to the laws at that time since none of the six legal deliveries were scored off, and in those days wides and no-balls were not debited to the bowler!

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Sister Act

A look back at yesterday’s finale to the Charlotte Edwards Cup, in which a pair of Scottish sisters played starring roles. Also a photo gallery.

Yesterday was Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day – both semi-finals and then the final all in a day. My focus for this post will be the final itself, which I will lead up to with brief mentions of the semi-finals.

THE SEMI-FINALS

In the first semi-final Blaze held Central Sparks to 140-9 in 20 overs and chased this target down with five wickets and two overs in hand, a comfortable victory. The second match, between South East Stars and Southern Vipers was a tighter affair – Stars scored 162-5 from their 20 overs, and Vipers fought hard but ended up five runs short, in a match that went to the last ball – a six off that delivery and Vipers would have been in the final.

THE FINAL

Blaze won the toss and decided to bowl. Going into this match Blaze had won all six of the matches in which they had chased this season, so Stars knew they had to put up a big total to have a chance. When the first over yielded 18 things were looking good for them. However although there were promising moments from most of the Stars batter they could not build on this excellent start – the tale of the innings was of batters getting going and then getting out before making a serious contribution. In the end they finished with 141-9, with Georgia Redmayne’s 25 the biggest single contribution. Heather Graham and Josie Groves took the principal bowling honours with three wickets each. Kathryn Bryce had 1-11 from three overs and took a catch, while Sarah Bryce had two stumpings, both off Groves.

Stars benefitted from a huge slice of luck early in the reply – a drive from Marie Kelly deflected off the bowler Farrant into the non-strikers end stumps with Tammy Beaumont out of her ground for a freak run out. Kelly herself was second out at 37, with Kathryn Bryce already going very well. Sarah Bryce joined her sister at the crease and the pair took the game right away from Stars. Kathryn Bryce, the leading run scorer of this season’s tournament, completed her fifth 50 of the competition off 35 balls, with Sarah Bryce playing a fine support role. The partnership was worth 79 when a fine delivery from Danielle Gregory beat Kathryn Bryce’s attempted reverse sweep and bowled her for 62 (45). Heather Graham joined Sarah Bryce, who now assumed control of proceedings. By the time the 19th over started the ask was down to 10. That proved not even enough to take it to the final over, as Stars skipper Bryony Smith decided to trust this over to Ryana McDonald-Gay who had gone for 19 in her only previous over. Sarah Bryce emulated her sister’s feat of reaching 50, but ironically the winning hit was made by Graham, with a four. Sarah Bryce ended with 52 not out off 46 balls. Kathryn Bryce’s all round performance saw her named Player of the Match. The Bryce sisters incidentally are Scottish, and are separated by two years, Kathryn being 26 and Sarah 24. Tilly Corteen-Coleman, a 16 year old left arm orthodox spinner, had the excellent figures of 4-0-24-0. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A new butterfly sighting – I spotted this red and black beauty while out and about an hour ago.

England’s Super Eights Group

A look at the situation in England’s Super Eights group at the T20 World Cup and a photo gallery.

This post looks at the situation in England’s Super Eights group at the T20 World Cup. The other group is in action today, with the current match being between Bangladesh and India.

THE SITUATION SO FAR

This group kicked off with South Africa beating the United States of America. England then won a hugely impressive victory over West Indies, a match dominated by Phil Salt who made a respectable West Indian score look very ordinary by scoring 87 off 47 balls to lead England’s victory charge. Yesterday afternoon and early evening UK time saw England face South Africa, and although England had opportunities at various stages South Africa held their nerve at the death to record a narrow win. In the small hours of this morning UK time the two co-hosts did battle, and the West Indies romped to a colossal victory, needing barely more than half their 20 overs to chase down the USA’s total.

THE REMAINING MATCHES

England have the USA left to play and South Africa have to play the West Indies. If England beat the USA then the South Africa-West Indies match effectively becomes a KO – if West Indies win that will push SA’s net RR below England’s, and if SA win they will top the group, and England with two wins out of three will be second as of right. If England somehow lose to the USA then they will need South Africa to beat the West Indies, which would give SA three wins out of three, and the other three teams each one win and two defeats, and it would come down to net run rate. Wins for both USA and the West Indies in this round of matches would mean that SA and West Indies each have two wins out of three and England and the USA are eliminated.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…