Tag: Bees

The 2023 Ryder Cup So Far

The Ryder Cup is a golf tournament played every two years between teams representing Europe and the USA (used to be GB & Ireland v USA). It features three match play formats: Foursomes, where the players hit alternate shots, fourballs, where each player plays their own ball and the hole is won the best score out of the four players, and singles, which is head to head between two players. This latter is the only format in which every player is guaranteed to play barring injuries. The first two days each see four foursomes matches in the morning and four fourball matches in the afternoon, while day three features the 12 singles matches.

YESTERDAY

I was too busy following the end of the County Championship cricket season to catch any of yesterday’s action, but Europe ended up with a commanding 6.5 – 1.5 lead (a win scores one point, and a half half a point).

THIS MORNING

Europe continued to dominate. Match two saw Hovland and Aberg for Europe set a new all time competition record when they hammered Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9 and 7 (nine holes up with only seven left to play), the biggest margin of victory in the history of the tournament (beating the 8 and 7 by which Paul Broadhurst once lost a singles match). Koepka could do nothing right, and by the end Scheffler, dragged down by his partner’s bad play and worse attitude, was also playing some very shoddy golf. McIlroy and Fleetwood in match one and Rahm and Hatton in match four each recorded 2&1 victories for Europe. Max Homa and Brian Harman saved some face for the USA by winning their match 4&2, but Europe were still 9.5 – 2.5 ahead.

THIS AFTERNOON SO FAR

The USA have finally found some form this afternoon. Hovland and Aberg, heroes of the morning for Europe, are on the brink of a heavy defeat at the hands of Burns and Morikawa, while Homa and Harman are poised to repeat their win of this morning. Match three is tied at the half way mark, and Europe are ahead in match four. If the USA can win this session 3.5 – 0.5 or 4-0 they will be in a position from which a comeback in the singles is not unprecedented (both USA and Europe have won from 6-10 down in the past, and USA as holders only need 14 points to retain the trophy, whereas Europe need 14.5 to win it). Anything less than a win by one of those two huge margins will leave USA needing a record breaking comeback in the singles.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

There was a full moon and a clear night sky last night – this picture and the four following it are captures thereof.

The Closing Stages of the County Championship Season

We are about to go into the final session of play of the County Championship season of 2023. Surrey are already confirmed as champions – although they lost a hard fought match against Hampshire their only rivals Essex had already crumbled to an innings defeat at the hands of already relegated Northamptonshire. Durham and Worcestershire are the promoted sides, which leaves only the question of whether Kent or Middlesex are the other side to go down.

DERBYSHIRE V GLAMORGAN

This match, the one I am currently listening to is between two sides who have both had poor seasons. Derbyshire are winless, and due to their craven cowardice in delaying their declaration today until the target stood at 384 in 70 overs, nowhere near a tempting enough carrot to lure Glamorgan, whose position is already settled, into going for the target, and thus almost certainly guaranteeing the draw. Derbyshire will finish at worst second from bottom, but that is only because Yorkshire were hit with a punitive points deduction, which has been enough to guarantee them last place in the table.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE V MIDDLESEX

Another match involving a declaration on the final day, but Middlesex, knowing that a draw was effectively valueless to them in their quest to stay up did dangle a carrot, and Nottinghamshire are making the chase look quite easy at present. Kent and Lancashire are pretty much certain to draw – Lancashire are still batting in their second innings and are 181 ahead of Kent, which means that unless Middlesex can scramble nine wickets from somewhere in less than a full session they will go down.

A NOTE ON OVERSEAS PLAYERS

Those who have studied my all time county XIs will have noted that on those occasions on which I named an overseas player (and I never picked more than one) I nearly always opted for a bowler. The use Surrey have made this season of Sean Abbott, Daniel Worrall and Kemar Roach underlines the value of high quality overseas bowlers. On the other side of the scale I would put Sussex, third in division two, in spite of losing only one match all season – they have had 10 draws in 14 matches. Their main overseas star has been Cheteshwar Pujara, a pure batter, and for a few matches, a side that was struggling to take 20 wickets was further skewed in favour of batting when they opted to allow Steve Smith to have some pre-Ashes batting practice. Pujara may have been justifiable, but signing a second overseas pure batter when struggling for wickets was on any reckoning misjudged.

A CLAIM FOR A PLACE ON THE INDIAN TOUR

England’s next test tour is to India, a place where spin bowling is important. The best specialist spinner in England is Jack Leach, and Rehan Ahmed is very promising young cricketer. In addition to these two I would draw attention to the man whose 800 runs and 40 wickets has helped Hampshire to third place in division one, Liam Dawson. If England go on a test tour of India without Dawson in the form he is currently enjoying their selectors will be guilty of dereliction of duty, as they will also be if anyone other than Foakes is named as keeper.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – All Rounders v Specialists

An ‘All Time XIs’ clash between a side of multi-skilled players and a side of specialists, plus two large photo galleries.

Today I set up a contest between an XI of great players known for being multi-talented and an XI of guys who would only ever have been picked for one particular skill. The latter side has the six batters, one keeper, four bowlers balance used by the West Indies under Clive Lloyd and Australia under the captaincies of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, each of which sides were the best test sides of their respective eras.

ALL BASES COVERED XI

  1. WG Grace (right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various types through his career, excellent close catcher, vice-captain). In his best decade, the 1870s, he averaged 49 with the bat, while the next best were around the 25 mark. He was also a top of the range bowler.
  2. Frank Woolley (left handed batter, left arm orthodox spin bowler, ace close fielder). The only cricketer ever to achieve the career treble of 10,000 FC runs, 1,000 FC wickets and 1,000 FC catches, and the only non-wicket keeper to achieve the latter milestone.
  3. Wally Hammond (right handed batter, right arm medium-fast bowler, excellent fielder). One of the greatest batters ever to play the game, a regular new ball bowler for his county and a useful fill-in seamer at test level, and a superb catcher.
  4. Denis Compton (right handed batter, left arm wrist spinner). An all-rounder in more than just a cricketing sense – he and brother Leslie were important members of the Arsenal FC sides of their day, with Leslie a full international at that sport and Denis winning wartime international caps. Only one batter reached 100 FC hundreds in fewer than the 552 innings it took him – Don Bradman. He developed his bowling after being impressed by ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith.
  5. Garry Sobers (left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket, gun fielder). Cricketers don’t come more multi-skilled than this man was.
  6. Aubrey Faulkner (right handed batter, leg spinner). Arguably the most genuine all rounder in test history – he alone among takers of at least 50 test wickets finished his career with a batting average above 40 and a bowling average below 30.
  7. *Imran Khan (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter, captain). He had a spell when he played purely as a batter, but his overall career record is slightly tilted in favour of bowling – a batting average of 37.69 is very respectable but not outstanding, whereas a bowling average of 22.69 per wicket bears comparison with any of the specialist bowlers to play for Pakistan in his career and is ahead of most of them.
  8. Wasim Akram (left arm fast bowler, left handed batter). This slot was a toss up between him and Alan Davidson, a similar type of player though not quite as fast a bowler.
  9. Billy Bates (off spinner, right handed batter). A fine all rounder in his day, and the first England bowler to take a test match hat trick (part of a match performance in which he scored 55 and took 14 Australian wickets).
  10. Ray Lindwall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A great fast bowler, and a handy lower order batter, scorer of two test tons in that capacity.
  11. +Alan Smith (wicket keeper, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). I have selected him for this role in this side because while many regular keepers have turned an arm over on occasion this man actually took 131 first class wickets at 23.46 a piece with a best of 5-32. On one occasion, in a game in which he was playing as keeper and captain and injury crisis led to him taking the new ball, and at one point in the innings in question his figures were 6-6-0-4 including a hat trick! 428 first class matches yielded him 715 catches and 61 stumpings, and also 11,027 runs at 20.92, including three first class tons. Who would stand in with the gloves if he were to have a bowl? Well, WG did the job twice in test matches, and Hammond and Sobers would both likely be capable of doing so as well.

This side has a deep batting line up and a dazzling array of bowling options at its disposal, with a fine keeper.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I mentioned Alan Davidson in connection with Wasim Akram’s place in the line up. Keith Miller was a rival for Imran Khan’s slot, with Mike Procter also deserving a mention. The ‘Kirkheaton twins’, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst also have to be mentioned. Gilbert Jessop as an ‘X-factor player’ would have appealed to some. Three subcontinental all rounders whose bowling speciality was left arm spin must also be acknowledged: Mulvantrai ‘Vinoo’ Mankad, Ravindra Jadeja and Shakib Al Hasan. Sri Lankan leg spinning all rounder Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva has had most of his best moments in limited overs cricket. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

PHOTO GALLERY ONE

I have lots of photos to share, hence two galleries in this post…

THE SPECIALISTS XI

  1. Jack Hobbs (right handed opening batter). The Master, one half of test cricket’s greatest ever opening pair along with…
  2. Herbert Sutcliffe (right handed opening batter). The ultimate ‘big match’ player, as shown by the progression of his averages – 52.02 in FC cricket, 60.73 in test cricket, 66.85 in The Ashes.
  3. *Don Bradman (right handed batter, captain). In test cricket only a handful of the best of the rest to have played 20 or more matches are even within 40 runs an innings of his 99.94. He was also an excellent skipper.
  4. Brian Lara (left handed batter). The only player to have twice set the world test record score, and one of only two to simultaneously hold the individual scoring record in test and FC cricket (Bradman between 1930 and 1933 with 452* and 334 being the other). Left handers are supposed to be vulnerable to off spin, but he once scored 688 in a three match series in Sri Lanka with the latter’s bowling spearheaded by Muthiah Muralidaran.
  5. Sachin Tendulkar (right handed batter). Only one player has scored 100 international centuries, and only one player has scored as many as 50 test centuries – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
  6. Allan Border (left handed batter, vice captain). For much of his career he was carrying a very moderate batting line up, but a few years at the end he got to experience being part of a winning combination.
  7. +Adam Gilchrist (left handed batter, wicket keeper). A fine keeper, and one who altered expectations of what keepers could be expected to do with the bat (a questionable legacy given e.g. the shameful treatment of Ben Foakes by the England selectors).
  8. Malcolm Marshall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). An all time great fast bowler.
  9. Shane Warne (leg spinner, right handed batter). The reviver of an almost forgotten art (save for Abdul Qadir the 1980s did not see a leg spinner of true test class).
  10. Bill Johnston (left arm fast medium bowler, left arm orthodox spin bowler, left handed tail end batter). Australia’s leading wicket taker in several series in the immediate post WWII era, it was not unknown for him to go straight from spinning the old ball to swinging the new one.
  11. Glenn McGrath (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed tail end batter). The fast bowling spearhead of Australia’s dominant test side of the 1990s and early 2000s.

This side has a powerful top seven batters, five front line bowling options, courtesy of big Bill Johnston being two types of bowler and a quality keeper.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS AND LIKELY OUTCOME

Steve Smith of Australia is probably the biggest batting miss, while Curtly Ambrose is probably the biggest bowling miss, although there were many candidates in both categories. My own feeling is that the multi-skilled XI would be favourites – although it is a daunting task to get through it there is a visible end to the specialists batting resources, whereas the multi-skilled team really does bat all the way down. Similarly, the specialists don’t have a vast number of bowling options, whereas the multi-skilled team will always have someone to turn to in any given situation.

PHOTO GALLERY TWO

We end with a second photo gallery…

County Championship Action

A look at goings on in the County Championship, where the current round of fixtures is into its final day.

The current round of County Championship fixtures, now into its final day, has been massively impacted by the weather, but two games which are hugely important to the outcome of the championship both have chances of outright results.

TOP V BOTTOM

Surrey would have expected their game against Northamptonshire to be an easy one given the positions of the two sides, but Northamptonshire have played very well. After scoring 357 they dismissed Surrey for 185, an advantage of 172. With the match into its final day and nothing less than a win good enough for Northamptonshire they enforced the follow on. Burns and Sibley are currently holding out for Surrey, with the score 52-0 in the 36th over of their second innings. Surrey will head the table going into the final round of games, the question being how much by.

ESSEX V HAMPSHIRE

Essex, Surrey’s only challengers, are locked in battle with Hampshire. Essex led by 113 on first innings, and launched an all out assault in their second innings, declaring at 153-8 to set Hampshire 267 to win. Hampshire are currently 29-3, Harmer two wickets and Sam Cook one. Hampshire are at liberty to approach this anyway they please – they will finish somewhere in the middle of the table whatever they do, while Essex have to keep pushing for wickets.

ONE CONFIRMED RESULT

The match at Old Trafford has been officially confirmed as a draw – Lancashire were 277-7 in the only innings that the weather allowed to happen.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A large black beetle (next pic is closer up).
I was an eyewitness to the making of the wheel tracks in this picture – a large flat bed lorry (empty) cut off a a significant portion of the corner at the junction of Raby Avenue, Columbia Way and Loke Road (turning from Raby Avenue into Columbia Way).

All Time XIs – The Game’s Old Testament

An XI picked from cricket’s early history and a huge photo gallery.

This exercise looks as the title suggests at cricket’s early history. I have allowed myself one cricketer who played test cricket but otherwise these players are all of pre-test vintage.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *WG Grace (right handed batter, right arm bowler of various types, excellent close catcher, captain). The sole test cricketer in the XI, but although he played test cricket over a period spanning almost 19 years he was past his absolute prime by the time he debuted in that format in the first test on English soil in 1880.
  2. John Small (right handed batter). John Nyren in his book about Hambledon (his father Richard was closely involved with the club) waxes lyrical about Small. Small’s most remarkable effort was a 138* that was spread over three days play.
  3. James Aylward (left handed batter). Only eight years after John Minshull scored the first recorded century in any cricket match this man set the Hambledon all time record with an innings of 167.
  4. Nicholas Wanostrocht aka Felix (right handed batter). He played his cricket (for Kent among others) under the assumed name ‘Felix’ because he worked as a schoolmaster and felt it would damage his professional reputation to play under his own name. He was also author of ‘Felix on the Bat’.
  5. Fuller Pilch (right handed batter). Recognized as the best batter of the 1830s and 1840s. He used a bat with a long blade and a comparatively short handle.
  6. Vyell Walker (right handed batter, slow bowler). One of seven brothers from Southgate – the cricket ground there is still known as Walker’s Ground. A Middlesex regular, and along with Grace one of only two players to have scored a century and taken all ten wickets in an innings in the same first class match.
  7. +Tom Box (wicket keeper, right handed batter). He played every Sussex game from 1832 to 1856 inclusive, a remarkable achievement. He often batted in the top half of the order for them, and was clearly an excellent keeper.
  8. William Clarke (right arm leg spin bowler, right handed batter). An extraordinary wicket taker, and not the worst batter. He also created the All England XI, a professional touring XI who played all round the country. Over the next 30 years a number of other such teams were created, but in the end a potential schism was averted when WG Grace threw his lot in with the MCC. ‘Old Clarke’ has left the modern game one great legacy – it was he who bought the Trent Bridge Inn, enclosed some adjoining fields and turned them into a cricket ground.
  9. James Broadbridge (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One half of cricket’s first acknowledged great bowling partnership, along with…
  10. William Lillywhite (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). ‘The Nonpareil’, regular bowling partner of Broadbridge.
  11. David Harris (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). The first authentically great bowler, his method is splendidly described by Nyren in his book.

This XI has a good batting line up and a strong, varied bowling attack – three great pacers, two great and contrasting spinners and Grace as sixth bowling option. It also has an excellent captain and a great keeper.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The nearest overseas player to making the cut was Gideon Elliott, the Victoria fast bowler whose handful of first class matches yielded 48 wickets at less than five a piece. I picked Walker for the all rounders slot over Alfred Mynn, ‘the Lion of Kent’ for reasons of balance, which also ruled out either Osbaldeston or Lambert. I regretted not being able to find a place for John Wisden, the diminutive fast bowler who created Wisden’s Almanac. Julius Caesar, the remarkably named Surrey batter who toured Australia in 1863-4 deserves a mention, and also Heathfield Harman Stephenson, performer of the original hat trick, in a match at Hyde Park, Sheffield – the name coming about because someone in the crowd passed their hat around to collect money which was presented to Stephenson in honour of his feat. Two early Yorkshire greats, Ephraim Lockwood and Louis Hall might have their advocates. Three fast bowlers who I have not yet mentioned who had fine achievements to their credit were Sam Redgate, John Jackson and George Tarrant. George Freeman of Yorkshire was also close to selection.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The sun was exactly in the wrong position for this shot, and it took a lot of editing to render it usable.
A closer up edit of the dragon fly shot.

The One Day Cup Semi-Finals

A look at the semi-finals of the One Day Cup, which took place yesterday, and a large photo gallery.

These matches took place yesterday, and I only witnessed one of the four innings.

HAMPSHIRE V WARWICKSHIRE

This was the one I had not expected to catch any of, since it was an 11AM start, which meant that it was always more likely than not to be done before I was home from work. In the event it was over at 2:23PM, Warwickshire proving utterly spineless. Liam Dawson claimed 7-15 as Warwickshire were routed for 94. Hampshire then only lost one wicket knocking off the runs.

LEICESTERSHIRE V GLOUCESTERSHIRE

This one started at 2PM. By the time I was home from work the Gloucestershire innings was done, for a paltry 125, but it was raining. The rain eventually eased in time for a 6:15PM restart. Early on it looked like Gloucestershire might yet succeed in defending their low total. Leicestershire were 33-4 at low water mark. At that point Peter Handscomb, a former Gloucestershire player, was joined by Wiaan Mulder. This pair, slowly at first and more rapidly as their partnership endured, saw their side home to a six wicket victory. Thus Hampshire and Leicestershire will contest the final.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Gloucestershire v Lancashire

A look back at Gloucestershire’s win against Lancashire yesterday, some cricket related links and a huge photo gallery.

Yesterday Gloucestershire took on Lancashire for the right to claim a slot in the One-Day Cup semi-finals. This competition uses an interesting qualification system – the winners of each of the two groups qualify direct for the semi-finals, while second place in one group plays at home to third place in the either to qualify for the remaining semi-final places. Tomorrow will see Hampshire play Worcestershire to complete the SF line up, with group winners Warwickshire and Leicestershire already qualified. This post looks back at yesterday’s game.

THE LANCASHIRE INNINGS

I missed part of the Lancashire innings because I had a dentist appointment at 11AM. Lancashire were already four down with not a huge number of runs on the board when I tuned in. Wickets continued to fall regularly, although the eighth wicket pair (Tom Aspinwall and Tom Bailey) battled hard and prevented a total debacle. Still, 177 all out in a 50 overs per side match, even on a pitch offering a bit to the bowlers, should never be a defensible total.

THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE RESPONSE

There had been a brief rain interruption to the Lancashire innings, but no overs had yet been lost. However, the weather remained threatening, given Gloucestershire motive to look to settle things quickly. In the event they required less than half of their 50 overs to chase down the target. The chief architect of this destruction of Lancashire was Miles Hammond, who reached his maiden list A century off 82 balls, hitting nine fours and six sixes along the way. He added two more fours, the latter the winning hit, after reaching the landmark to end up on 109*. Gloucestershire had eight wickets as well as 25.1 overs to spare. It would appear that Gloucestershire have hit their straps exactly at the right time, and they will be tough for anyone to deal with now (direct qualification for the SF for group winners is IMO a double-edged sword – by the time the SF comes round they have had less recent practice than those who have to win an extra match to claim their places). A Lancashire bowling attack being helpless in the face of a Gloucestershire batter named Hammond is not unprecedented – about a century ago Walter Hammond in a county championship fixture absolutely took Lancashire apart, including starting a day’s play by hitting Aussie pacer Ted McDonald for five successive fours.

OTHER CRICKETING LINKS

This time last year I was making my cricketing trip through the alphabet. There are two more pieces to share to complete the set of selectorial posts:

THE LETTER Y

My full post about players whose surnames begin with Y can be seen here. There is a change to this XI since I posted it – Yashavsi Jaiswal has announced himself for India in no uncertain terms, which means that Martin Young, a respectable county opener, loses his place. The revised XI for this letter is thus: M Yardy, Yashavsi Jaiswal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, GN Yallop, *NWD Yardley, +Saleem Yousuf, U Yadav, Waqar Younis, J Young, P Yadav.

THE LETTER Z

No changes to this one, which can be viewed in full here. The XI reads Fakhar Zaman, Ibrahim Zadran, Zubayr Hamza, Najibullah Zadran, K Zondo, JW Zulch, +Zulqarnain Haider, M Zondeki, Zia Ur Rahman, Zaheer Khan, Zahir Khan.

As well as the above I have a new blog to introduce. Brailly has opened up with a cricket themed post, reinventing the county championship as a red ball franchise competition. I am impressed by this effort, and in gratitude for getting an honourable mention I reciprocate by linking to it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid gallery to share with you today…

From The Archives – U to X

A look back at the all time XIs I produced for the letters U, V, W and X last year, the last of them OTD last year, with some extra comments and one change. Also a fine photo gallery.

One of the things I have been doing on this blog lately is looking back at the cricketing trip through the alphabet that I took this time last year. In this post I look back at four of the posts on that journey.

THE LETTER U

In retrospect I should have mentioned left arm medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat. His very ordinary international record means he deserves no more than an honourable mention, but he deserves that much. I did give Andrew Umeed, an opening batter and occasional leg spinner, an honourable mention, and although Somerset as a whole struggled in the One Day Cup, never coming close to qualifying for a knockout slot, he had a quite superb tournament, scoring 613 runs with the bat. If he gets a county championship place in the strength of this and delivers in that competition as well he will represent a genuine threat to Imam Ul-Haq or Taufeeq Umar, but for the moment he has justified my giving him a mention. The XI in batting order remains: Taufeeq Umar, G Ulyett, Imam Ul-Haq, Inzamam Ul-Haq, *Misbah Ul-Haq, PR Umrigar, +Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Umran Malik, DL Underwood, M Ur Rahman. Please read the full post before commenting on my selections.

THE LETTER V

No new information has come to light relating to this letter, and I remain happy with my selections. I admit that the batting looks precarious with Vaas at seven, but point out that while sides who are powerful in bowling and not quite so strong in batting have been big winners (1930s Yorkshire, 1950s Surrey etc) very few sides have been big winners with batting but a lack of bowling. This XI in batting order is: M Vandort, J Vine, *MP Vaughan, GR Viswanath, DB Vengsarkar, +K Verreynne, C Vaas, AE Vogler, H Verity, W Voce, V Van der Bijl. The full post can be viewed here.

THE LETTER W

I regard the 2023 Ashes, yet another away series in which D Warner did not deliver with the bat, as full vindication of my decision not to pick. I should have given Chris Woakes an honourable mention, but I still prefer Woods in the number seven slot. Everyone I selected deserved their places, though Willis and Walsh are a toss up for the no11 slot – I wanted Bill Whitty with his left arm to give the attack extra variation. The XI in batting order remains: FE Woolley, *FMM Worrell, E de C Weekes, CL Walcott, SR Waugh, +BJ Watling, SMJ Woods, SK Warne, JH Wardle, WJ Whitty, RGD Willis. The full post can be viewed here.
Footnote: Wasim Akram was in the As XI, and the Ys had greater need than the Ws, so Waqar Younis was held back for that letter.

THE LETTER X

This XI has changed since I created it OTD last year – Kiwi off spinner Xara Jetly has emerged in no uncertain terms, and she replaces MaX Waller in the number slot. The XI thus reads: MaX O’Dowd, MaX Holden, ER DeXter, *AF KippaX, SJE LoXton, AXar Patel, XC Balaskas, RK OXenham, +T BoX, MaX Walker, XC Jetly. The original post can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

This is one of a large number of Hornby and other railway models that will be going under the hammer in James & Sons October sale.

England Women’s Squads For Upcoming Series Against Sri Lanka

A look at the England Women’s squads for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and a huge photo gallery.

This post looks at the England Women’s Squads for the ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka.

THE SQUADS

These are the squads courtesy of the cricket section of the BBC website:

T20: Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt.

ODI: Heather Knight (captain) Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Nat Sciver-Brunt.

THOUGHTS ON THE SQUADS

Sophie Ecclestone is being rested for these series on grounds of workload management, which is also why Nat Sciver-Brunt is only playing the ODI series. Beaumont in spite of her recent record breaking innings in The Hundred remains out of favour in T20Is. Among the inclusions the biggest news is the presence in both squads of Mahika Gaur, a 17 year old pace bowler. The T20I squad offers the possibility of all three of Gaur, Lauren Filer and Issy Wong playing together which would be quite something. There is also a maiden call up for Bess Heath, a 21 year old wicket keeper who will be second in line behind Amy Jones. I am not a fan of this particular selection – I would have preferred to see Rhianna Southby or Eleanor Threlkeld got this spot. Overall I am happy enough with these selections, and I am confident that England can win both series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a large photo gallery to finish with…

This sequence of pictures illustrate amply why I have dubbed this structure “Cormorant Platform”.

Two From The Archives

A look back at my all time R and S XIs, with some comments mentioning developments in the year since they were produced that might lead to alterations, a brief comment on Stokes’ ODI ‘unretirement’ and a large photo gallery.

This post looks back at the two posts I created on the 15th and 16th of August last year, with comments bringing them up to date, with a sidelight on a recent development.

THE LETTER R

On August 15th 2022 I published my all time XI of players with surnames beginning with R. I see no need to change this XI just yet. Please visit the full post, but for the record the XI is C Rogers (Australia), BA Richards (South Africa), IVA Richards (WI), JE Root (Eng), KS Ranjitsinhji (Eng), *RWV Robins (Eng), +RC Russell (Eng), AME Roberts (WI), KG Rabada (South Africa), W Rhodes (Eng), T Richardson (Eng). However, last year when looking at the honourable mentions I said among other things:

“James Rew of Somerset is going places in a big way – at the age of 18 he already has centuries in both first class and list A cricket. I would be very surprised if a version of this XI in ten years from now did not feature him.”.

Rew has come on apace since that comment and is already knocking at the door. At the age 19 Rew now has 1,373 FC runs at 52.80, with six centuries and a best of 221, his List A record reads 572 runs at 31.77 with 2 centuries and 1 other fifty, best 114, and one solitary T20 appearance in which he hit 47 off 35 balls. I am not yet rewriting the XI to include him, but if he gets his chance at the highest level and takes it then for all his historic significance and undoubted class Ranjitsinhji will be in danger.

THE LETTER S

This post was created OTD last year, and was arguably the most wide ranging in the whole series. The XI for the record was AJ Strauss, H Sutcliffe, *GC Smith, SPD Smith’ =KC Sangakkara, G St AS Sobers, BA Stokes, GTS Stevens, M Starc, JB Statham, D Steyn. Ben Stokes has emerged as a challenger to Graeme Smith for the captaincy of this side in the time since I first created it. Also Rhianna Southby has demonstrated herself to be a superb wicket keeper, although accommodating her will be tough – the best option would probably be to drop Greville Stevens and put her in at number eight. If she keeps up her current keeping standards I will certainly have to find a way to get her in and leave Sangakkara to play as a specialist batter. One possibility would be to drop Strauss, open with G Smith and Sutcliffe, play one or other of Sobers or Sangakkara at three and slot Southby in at seven or eight (in the latter case, moving Stevens up one).

STOKES’ ODI ‘UNRETIREMENT’

Ben Stokes has come out of ODI retirement to play the 2023 World Cup as a specialist batter. I can the see the appeal for both him and England,, but him being in the team as a specialist batter does reduce flexibility.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…