Tag: Bees

An Unexpected Final Day

How the fifth and final match of the 2025 series between the England and India men’s teams is poised and a large photo gallery.

I had expected to be posting about the conclusion of the final test of the 2025 series between England and India today, but the weather at The Oval turned nasty, bringing an early close with the match interestingly poised. Therefore the series will finish tomorrow.

HOW THINGS STAND

This match has seen astonishing twists and turns. First Atkinson, returning from injury at his home ground, took five cheap wickets to restrict India to 224 in the first innings. Then England made a blazing start in response only to lose wickets in a heap thereafter to a combination of good bowling and more than a few bad (or in some cases downright stupid) shots. In the end their advantage was 23. England bowled well again, but their fielding was the stuff of horror stories – six catches were dropped (I would probably class the sixth as more of a great stop than a drop had the rest of the fielding been up to snuff) and one clear cut run out opportunity fluffed. With this generous assistance India built lead of 373. England were 50-1 coming in to day, with Crawley having again demonstrated his inadequacy as a test opener. At 106-3 with Duckett and Pope gone in addition it looked good for India, but then a great stand between Root and Brook seemed to have settled things in England’s favour. Then Brook gifted India his wicket in a truly bizarre way – he actually completely lost his bat while playing an aggressive shot and ended up caught at mid off. This shortly after completing a century, his tenth in test cricket, off 91 balls. Jacob Bethell had his second failure of the match, and then not very long after completing his 39th test century Root was caught behind for 105. Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton were together at the crease, struggling to score as the ball suddenly started misbehaving when a black cloud reduced the light sufficiently for the umpires to take the players off with the score 339-6. That cloud then released its contents, and shortly after 6PM Oval groundsman Lee Fortis confirmed to the umpires that there was no way the surface would be playable by the cut off time of 6:42PM and that was the end of day four. England thus need 35 with four wickets standing to win the match, 34 for test cricket’s third ever tied match which would also win them the series, while India need four wickets for 33 or less or level the series. Chris Woakes dislocated his shoulder in the course of diving for a ball on day one, and would only bat in extremis, just to add to the variables. This has been an outstanding series, meriting comparison with the 2005 Ashes series, and in many ways that third ever tie in test history would be the most appropriate way for it to end.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

You may recall that I showed a female Karner Blue in yesterday’s gallery. This picture taken on Monday has now been confirmed as a male of the same species, which is considered to be endangered.
The female Karner Blue

Combined XI for the England v India Test Series 2025

The selection of a composite team for the 2025 test series between the England and India men’s teams, now approaching an end. Also a photo gallery.

The five test series between the England and India men’s teams is nearing an end – we are on day three of the fifth and final match, and I am not entirely convinced that day five of this match will be needed. This post picks a composite XI for the series.

SELECTION CRITERIA

This is a team of this series, so it is based on performances that have happened within this series. However, I reserve the right to alter positions in the batting order if I deem it necessary (explanations will be provided). Please feel free to comment with suggested changes, but bear in mind the effect that these will have on the balance of the side.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. KL Rahul (India, right handed opening batter). Over 500 runs in the series, and even though Jaiswal (the unlucky candidate for an opening berth, Crawley being plain and simple not good enough) is going well in this innings a shoo-in for this slot.
  2. Ben Duckett (England, left handed opening batter). Just edges Jaiswal for this slot – both have contributed well at various stages.
  3. Shubman Gill (India, right handed batter, vice captain). At one time he seemed to have Bradman’s record aggregate for a series (974 in 1930) in his sights but has fallen off in the latter half of the series. Nevertheless, his deeds, including 430 across the two innings of the match India won, make him a shoo-in.
  4. Joe Root (England, right handed batter, occasional off spinner). Has had a fine series, highlighted by moving past Messrs Dravid, Kallis and Ponting to go from fifth to second in the list of all time test career run scorers.
  5. +Rishabh Pant (India, left handed batter, wicket keeper). Has been typical Pant with the bat, though hasn’t actually done a huge amount with the gloves this series due to injuries preventing him from doing so.
  6. Jamie Smith (England, right handed batter). England’s leading run scorer of the series, and because he plays as a pure batter in domestic red ball cricket I have given Pant the gloves ahead of him.
  7. *Ben Stokes (England, left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, captain). Has been talismanic this series, and England are really feeling his absence from the current match.
  8. Washington Sundar (India, left handed batter, off spinner). Made his maiden test century in the course of this series, and also did his part with the ball, including a cheap four-for in the second England innings at Lord’s.
  9. Gus Atkinson (England, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). Has missed most of the series through injury, but he has taken eight wickets to date in the current match (and has been let down by his fielders this innings), which is enough for me to give him the nod.
  10. Akash Deep (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). He claimed a ten wicket match haul in the only game India have won so far, and in the current match, where again India are looking in a strong position, he has contributed a maiden test 50, having been sent in as night watcher last evening and benefitted from some generosity from England’s fielders.
  11. Jasprit Bumrah (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). The best fast bowler in the world at the moment, although India have fared better this series in the matches he has missed, his own personal performances have been splendid when he has been fit.

EXPLANATIONS/ HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I played Gill at number three rather than number four because both number fours have had great series, and none of the number threes have done especially well (if mandated to play someone who batted at three in the series I would select Pope and drop Root, but under strong protest – Pope has had an adequate series, whereas neither Sudarsan nor Nair have made a big score from number three for India). I opted to promote Gill because he is well used to batting up the order, whereas Root famously dislikes the number three slot.

Even though he fits less well with Root’s part time off spin than does Jadeja I opted for Sundar at number eight because he has done more with the ball than Jadeja this series, and I wanted to honour his maiden test century (for my money England’s petulant reaction to India’s refusal to accept the draw the very instant it became available was entirely indefensible).

The fast bowlers were problematic because only Siraj has played the entire series, and he has not been all that impressive except in being better at staying in one piece than the others. However all three of my picks have great individual performances to their credit, Deep’s 10-for being a clear cut match winner.

Gill has handled the captaincy reasonably well, but not well enough to get the job over Stokes, though I have endeavoured the show a measure of respect for his leadership by explicitly naming him as vice captain.

Duckett over Jaiswal was practically a coin flip of a choice, and I have no objection to those who resolve that decision either way. Anyone raising a voice on Crawley’s behalf merely demonstrates their lack of cricket knowledge.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This comes from work – I am currently assembling (and imaging) day one of a stamp/ postal history sale, using the lots and handwritten descriptions thereof which I type up.
A graphic of my selections.
I spotted this near the end of my lunch time walk, more or less equidistant between the discovery centre and my home. It has been identified for me as a female Karner Blue butterfly.

Advantage Surrey

A look at goings on in the county championship, a link and two photo galleries.

A new round of county championship matches got underway yesterday. Surrey, leaders by four points going into this round, are playing away at relegation threatened Durham. Second place Nottinghamshire meanwhile are at home to third place Somerset. This post looks at what has happened in those two matches.

DURHAM v SURREY

I missed most of yesterday’s play, being at work. However, I can tell you that Durham won the toss and opted to bat, and that they were all out for 153. Dan Worrall claimed four wickets, Sam Curran three and Indian spinner Sai Kishore two. Surrey reached the close of play yesterday on 182-5, 29 ahead already. Thus the task for Durham this morning was to wrap the Surrey first innings up before the lead became unmanageable. Unfortunately for Durham not only did they take the entire morning session (literally – the tenth Surrey wicket fell on the stroke of lunch, just as Durham’s first innings had ended onn the stroke of tea yesterday) to get through Surrey, they also conceded 140 runs in the process. Dan Lawrence scored 88 and Jordan Clark 82. Durham are batting better second time round, but at 127-2 they are still 42 runs in arrears as I type. Emilio Gay is currently 73 not out. The bonus points in this match (awarded during the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings are Durham 3 (a full haul of bowling points, 0 for the miserable batting effort), Surrey 5 (a full 3 for bowling, 2 for batting).

GALLERY ONE

I have opted to split today’s gallery…

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE V SOMERSET

All that I know of this match comes via cricinfo. Nottinghamshire won the toss an opted to bowl first. They began well, reducing Somerset to 25-3. However at that point they were baulked by James Rew and Tom Abell, who put on 313 for the fourth wicket, Rew making 166 and Abell 156. There was not a huge amount thereafter, the next biggest contribution being 31 not out from Craig Overton. Somerset tallied 438 in the end, taking 132.3 overs to get there. The bonus points for this innings (awarded only for the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings) were 3 to Somerset for batting and 2 to Nottinghamshire for bowling. Craig Overton got Ben Slater early in the Nottinghamshire reply but Haseeb Hameed and Freddie McCann are currently holding the fort for the midlanders.

KOOKABURRA BALLS

This round is the last of this season (and I hope ever) to be played with Kookaburra balls. There has been plenty of high scoring around as is usual when the Kookaburra is used in England. This leads to make a suggestion, just to help the ECB reach the right conclusion about the ghastly things: when this round of matches is done and dusted each county should ceremonially burn their remaining stock of Kookaburra balls.

GALLERY TWO

Just before I apply my usual closure to this post I have a link to share. A new species of dinosaur has been unearthed in Argentina. The site from which I share this is Argentine, which means that it is written in Spanish, but they do have a translate button that I have made use of. Click here to read the full article.

Time now for my usual sign off…

A new butterfly sighting today – this is one of the smaller ones.

Surrey Women Win T20 Vitality Blast

A mention of the final stages of the fourth test match between England and India, and some classless behaviour from Stokes, a look back at the Women’s Vitality Blast T20 Final between Surrey and Warwickshire, and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday evening, overlapping with the end of the fourth test match (by then an inevitable draw, which I switched away from while keeping a cricinfo tab open), and also with most (but not quite all since it went to extra time and penalties) of the final of the Women’s European Championship between England and Spain, the final of the Women’s T20 Vitality Blast tournament took place between Surrey (league stage winners and as such automatic qualifiers for the final) and Warwickshire. After a brief wrap up of the test match this post will look back at that match.

A DRAW AND A POOR BIT OF THINKING/ BEHAVIOUR

By the time I changed radio channels away from the test match to the final of the Women’s T20 Blast tournament the draw was effectively signed, sealed and delivered, with the sole remaining question being whether either or both of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar would reach what I would consider to be well deserved centuries. Unfortunately Stokes, a great cricketer but not always the most sensible in other regards, failed to appreciate the niceties of this situation (Sundar especially deserved extra consideration as he had at this point not scored a test match century) and donning his “moral crusader’s cape” he offered India the draw as soon he was allowed to do so, ignoring the two milestones that were by then bulking large in the minds of the batters, and got grumpy when they did not accept his offer, preferring to bat on to secure their landmarks first and then accept the draw. The laws of this great game are unequivocal on the point that a draw can be accepted at any time in the last 15 overs of a match if both sides agree. Here, for obvious reasons, even though the draw had long been the summit of their ambitions, India were not ready to agree, and they could not be forced do. Stokes should have noted the scores of the two batters (especially Sundar), and waited until they either completed their tons or failed in the attempts. As to what actually eventuated I finish this section with two mastodon posts of mine, a few moments apart:

Post by @autisticphotographer@mas.to

View on Mastodon

and

Post by @autisticphotographer@mas.to

View on Mastodon

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS

The finals day for this competition featured a playoff in which Warwickshire faced The Blaze for the right to take on Surrey in the final and then the final itself. The first match was dominated by Issy Wong, who scored 59 and then took 4-14.

For the final Surrey won the toss and chose to bowl. Wong again batted well, but did not go really big this time, managing 31. That would remain the highest Warwickshire score of the innings. Laura Harris was typically explosive but only did half a job, going for 25 off 11 balls. It took some good work by the Warwickshire tail to get them past 150. They ended with 153-9, a good recovery from 115-8 at the dismissal of Harris, but a total that a powerful Surrey line up would have been confident of chasing.

The big difference between the two sides was that whereas Warwickshire had had lots of useful efforts but no big contribution Surrey got a clearly defined match winning innings from Grace Harris, sister of Laura (hence the title of this section of the post). Grace did not score quite as explosively as Laura had, but she did rack up an unbeaten 63, the highest score of the day, and she still only took 33 balls to make that score. The real key to her innings was that she was always scoring – of the 25 balls she took to reach her 50 she actually scored off 24 and faced only one dot ball. With Dunkley and keeper Chathli (who had earlier been superb with the gloves) playing support roles (23 off 13 and 16 not out off 9 respectively) Surrey won by five wickets with 3.2 overs to spare, a victory every bit as comprehensive as the margin suggests. Most of Warwickshire’s bowlers did reasonably well, though Millie Taylor, the young wrist spinner who was the tournament’s leading wicket taker came badly unstuck in the final, finishing with 3-0-37-0. The much more experienced Georgia Davis leaked 14 from her only over. Issy Wong was relative economical (under eight an over), but would have been disappointed to finish wicketless. It was Chathli who made the winning hit, a drive down the ground off Wong. Grace Harris, having produced score over twice the size of anyone else in the match, was named Player of the Match. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…(periodic reminder, to view an image at larger size simply click on it, and if you do this for the first image in a gallery you can view the whole gallery as a slide show).

This green beetle (see next image for close up) was enjoying some flowers not far from King’s Lynn train station.
This blue winged butterfly was enjoying a yellow plant head in Hardings Pits (four images). There is also a ladybird on the other side of the plant head.
A magpie and a muntjac – I think the magpie provides cleaning services for the muntjac which is why it is allowed to perch on it.

Heading for a Draw at Old Trafford

A look at developments in Manchester, where the test match is moving towards a draw. Also a large photo gallery.

When I put up yesterday’s post Gill and Rahul were putting up a good fight for India as day four at Old Trafford drew towards a conclusion. This post takes the story forward.

INDIA’S RESISTANCE ACT

Shubman Gill and KL Rahul were still together at the close of day four, meaning that England still needed eight more Indian wickets. Stokes had Rahul caught behind for 90 in the 71st over to make it 188-3. Gill proceeded smoothly to his fourth century of the series, a joint record for a series in England shared with Don Bradman (1930), Denis Compton (v South Africa, 1947) and Joe Root last time India visited these shores, with an honourable mention for Allan Lamb who took three tons off the mighty 1984 West Indies side and then added another in a one-off test against then newbies at that level Sri Lanka. Shortly after reaching the landmark he made the first and only mistake of his innings edging one from Archer with the new ball through to Smith behind the stumps. That was 222-4. It might have been two in two for Archer, as Jadeja edged his first ball, but Root floored the chance. Since then there have been no serious alarms, though Ollie Pope almost got to what would have been an amazing catch. Sundar and Jadeja, promoted ahead of Pant as the latter is injured, each reached 50s, and took India to the tea interval on 322-4, a lead of 11 overall. Post tea the two all rounders are playing more expansively, and England look decidedly short of ideas.

A NOTE ON SELECTIONS

My own view is that both sides have erred with their selections for this match. England, with Dawson at eight and Woakes at nine had a huge amount of batting, but as this second Indian innings is demonstrating they are short of bowling, and although the odd ball has misbehaved this has overall been a very good pitch on which to bat. India in my view were more culpable. Neither Thakur nor Kamboj offered anything with the ball, which is what they were selected to provide. Arshdeep Singh damaging his thumb just before the match started created an extra difficulty for India, who were admittedly short of options, but Kuldeep Yadav, the left arm wrist spinner, would have been more likely to be of value than either Thakur or Kamboj. The fact that this match is quite likely to finish with only two of the four innings completed (the third may end with a declaration to bring an early finish to the match, but an all out is highly unlikely) tells its own story about the domination of the bat over the five days. England will head to The Oval 2-1 up in the series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A goods train on its siding, from the Tennyson Road level crossing.
A beetle on a reed hanging out over the Gaywood River
A close up of the beetle.

Record Breaking from England

A look at developments at Old Trafford since yesterday, including Ben Stokes joining not one but two elite clubs this morning. Also two photo galleries of very different types.

Yesterday, as Root went past Ponting to second place in the all time list of test match run scorers I put up a post about England’s progress in the fourth test of their series against India, at Old Trafford. Since then things have moved forward, largely in England’s favour, although KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are currently batting well for India.

STOKES JOINS TWO ELITE CLUBS

Stokes and Root shared a big partnership, ended not by a dismissal but by a retirement due to cramp on Stokes’ part. Eight runs after Stokes’ retirement Root was finally out for precisely 150. That was 499-5. Neither Jamie Smith nor Chris Woakes did a huge amount with the bat, but between them they lasted long enough for Stokes to feel able to resume his innings at the fall of the seventh wicket. Stokes and Liam Dawson saw things through the close of day three, by when Stokes had advanced his score to 77. England at 544-7 were 186 ahead by then.

Dawson was eighth out at 563, but Carse now provided Stokes with good support. Two landmarks came in quick succession – when Stokes reached three figures he was only the fourth England men’s player to score a century and take a five-for in the same test match, the others being Tony Greig, Ian Botham (five times) and Gus Atkinson. Then when he struck a six to move from 108 to 114 that also took his career tally from 6,999 to 7,005 making him one of only three to have achieved the test career treble of 7,000+ runs, 200+ wickets and 100+ catches, the other two members of this club being Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, the most multi-skilled cricketer ever, and Jacques Henry Kallis, the South African superstar. By now Stokes was in full rampage mode. The fun ended for Stokes when on 141 he holed out to Sudarsan off Jadeja. That was 658-9, already a record test score at this ground, and a lead of precisely 300 on first innings. However, Stokes kept England batting, and Carse and Archer accrued 11 further runs before Carse holed out just short of what would have been his second test 50.

GALLERY ONE: AUCTION PURCHASES

James and Sons had an auction this week, which went reasonably well after a very quiet start. I was successful on two items, lot 293, a small barometer in the shape of a helmsman’s wheel and lot 359, an early (1902) set of railway themed cigarette cards. The images I took of these yesterday morning form this gallery…

The first of four images of the barometer taken in my kitchen
The barometer in its new location, atop my Czech sculpture, which is working admirably as a support for it.
Not only did I image all five sleeves of this set, I imaged every locomotive bar one individually.

INDIA’S SECOND INNINGS SO FAR

There was time for a brief burst at India before lunch, and Woakes struck twice in the first over, removing Jaiswal and Sudarsan for ducks. Since then India have had their best period of the match, not having lost a wicket between lunch and tea, nor any since tea as yet. They are scoring fairly slowly, but holding out. At the moment India are 104-2, needing 207 more to avoid the innings defeat. India probably need to bat until at least tea time tomorrow before they can feel safe, and a victory for them from here is as close as anything in red ball cricket can be to impossible.

GALLERY TWO: GENERAL

My usual sign off…

England in Command at Old Trafford

A look at what has been going on in the test match at Old Trafford, including Root’s move from fifth to second in the all time list of test match career run scorers. Also a large photo gallery.

On Wednesday morning the fourth test match of the England v India series got underway. This post looks at what has happened in the match so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

England had selected Liam Dawson in place of the injured Shoaib Bashir, deepening their batting order in the process (Dawson is a genuine all rounder, which means that with Woakes also retained England would have Carse at number ten and Archer at eleven). For India Anshul Kamboj, who has taken all ten wickets in an innings in a first class match in India, made his debut in place of the injured Akash Deep, while in the interest of bulking up the batting medium pacer Shardul Thakur was preferred to either Prasidh Krishna or Kuldeep Yadav (who would have been my choice). Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to put India in to bat.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

The Indian upper order largely functioned quite well, but none of them managed to make a really huge score. Ben Stokes was the best of England’s bowlers, capturing five wickets. India tallied 358, respectable, but less than they would have been hoping for. Pant had had a foot broken along the way, meaning that for the second straight match Dhruv Jurel took over behind the stumps.

THE ENGLAND RESPONSE

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley batted beautifully, though neither could make it to three figures. Crawley was first out, for 84. Duckett managed ten runs more. Pope and Root got through to the close with the score 225-2. Play resumed this morning with Root the first of the players involved to make it out to the middle. He had three test career run tallies in his sight at the start of play. Pope and Root batted superbly through the morning, and England took lunch at 332-2, a mere 26 short of parity with a huge amount of batting to come. Root by then was on 63 not out, and had passed both Rahul Dravid (13,288) and Jacques Kallis (13,289), and was now in third place in the all time list of test run scorers on 13,322, needing a further 57 to go into second and push Ponting (who played 168 tests, while this is Root’s 157th) down into third place. Washington Sundar got his bowl of the innings in the 69th over thereof, and immediately post lunch he made the delay in bringing him on look a farcically bad call by Gill, claiming the wickets of Pope (a poor shot from the Surrey man to go for 71) and Brook, out for 3. Root was still there, and now found a good partner in skipper Stokes. Just before the tea interval a single took Root’s score to 120 and his career tally to 13,379, relegating Ponting. At Root’s current rate of accumulation he will need about a further 30 test matches to close the gap to Tendulkar (15,921) at the top of the list. By the tea interval England were 433-4, 75 ahead with six first innings wickets standing, Root 121 not out, Stokes 36 not out. Incidentally this Root’s 38th test century, and due to a period a few years back when he went a long time failing to convert 50s into 100s (he has a total of 104 50+ scores in test cricket, 66 between 50 and 99 and 38 of 100+) that puts him level with Sangakkara, and behind Kallis, Ponting and Tendulkar in the career centuries list. England will be looking to bat only once – the earliest they might call a halt would be midway been lunch and tea tomorrow to give them a day and a half to polish off the Indian second innings.

PHOTOGRAPHY

My usual sign off…

I have an ID on this little green critter of ‘inchworm’. the larval stage of a certain species of moth (six photos total, two of them after I had orchestrated its transfer to a buddleia branch).
I usually focus on the teazel heads, and the insects enjoying them, but this is a shot of a whole teazel plant.

England Women In Euros Final

A brief look back at the women’s Euros semi-final between England and Italy that took place last night and a large photo gallery.

Last night saw the first semi-final of the women’s European Championship, between England and Italy in Geneva, which lies near the base of a mountain pass connecting Switzerland to Italy. This post looks back at the match.

SO NEAR AND SO FAR

Italy took the lead just before half time, through Barbara Bonansea, against the form books, which made England firm favourites. They held on to that lead until close to to end of normal time. 19 year old Michelle Agyemang equalized in stoppage time, of which there was quite a lot. Extra time saw a lot of pressure from England and a lot of resistance from Italy. However, just as Italy were reckoning they had got themselves a shoot out and England were resigning themselves to going to penalties once again, a penalty was awarded to England. Chloe Kelly took responsibility for taking the kick. The Italian goalkeeper kept the penalty out but the ball rebounded into Kelly’s path and at the second time of asking she did put it in the net, and England were through at the last gasp, and had avoided the necessity of a second successive penalty shoot out. The final will take place in Basel on Sunday.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The butterfly that appears in this picture and the next was a new sighting for me.
This picture and the next four show three six spot Burnet moths that were on teazel heads only a few feet apart – two on one and one on the other.
Two egrets at the Nar Outfall.

Delayed Gratification for England Women

A look back at yesterday’s rain reduced second ODI between the England and India women’s teams and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday the second ODI of a three match series between the England and India women’s team took place at Lord’s. This post looks back at the match.

RAIN STRIKES

The match was supposed to start at 11AM and be 50 overs per side, but it rained and for a long time did not let up. Play was eventually able to start at 3PM, with the match reduced to 29 overs per side (there is some flexibility built into the playing hours for poor weather). England won the toss, and with overs reduced and further reductions possible they opted to bowl first. India struggled, especially against Sophie Ecclestone, who seems to back to something close to her best after a brief layoff earlier in the season. The tall left arm spinner had 3-27 from her six overs, and her wickets were those of Harleen Deol (number three), Harmanpreet Kaur (number four) and Richa Ghosh (number six). Harmanpreet Kaur has a had a miserable time with the bat on this tour, and with an ODI world cup in India next up and her being already 36 years old she may well opt to bow out of international cricket in front of a home audience. India’s woes were compounded by some poor game management from Deepti Sharma in the closing stages of their innings – she did not manage to face anything like enough of the bowling herself, exposing tail enders to far too much. There was one particularly bizarre seven ball sequence in which she first refused a single so as to be on strike at the start of an over (sensible), then took a single off the first ball of the over anyway, and then at the end of the over did allow her much less skilled batting partner the strike by going through for a single on the last ball of the over. India ended their 29 overs with a score of 143-8. Beaumont and Jones made a rapid start to the chase, and after Beaumont was out Nat Sciver-Brunt, fit enough to bat but not to bowl, maintained the momentum. More rain came with England 102-1 from 18.4 overs. England, well ahead on DLS, needed there to be eight more balls for it to constitute a match. Eventually the weather cleared in time for a resumption at 7PM, with England’s innings now reduced to 24 overs and their target adjusted down from 144 to 115. India were deliberately slow to take their places in the field, and one of their further efforts to delay things in the hope of the rain returning before the 20 over mark arrived and sealed their doom saw them send an appeal for caught behind off a delivery signalled wide upstairs, even though keeper Ghosh had said (heard by everyone courtesy of the stump mic) that there had been no edge. The review was of course confirmed as a burn, and the 20 over mark came and went with no sign of further rain. Amy Jones did reach the highest score of the game, 46 not out, but then got herself stuck at the wrong end, and Sophia Dunkley, who had come in after the second ball on the resumption had got rid of Sciver-Brunt, drilled the last ball of the 21st over straight down the ground for four to take England to the adjusted target with eight wickets and three whole overs to spare. Ecclestone’s three crucial wickets earned her the Player of the Match award, and the teams will reassemble on Tuesday for what is now a decider. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (still a generous gallery, though yesterday in particular was not the best day for photography)…

England Women in Euro Semis by the Barest of Margins

A look back at events in Switzerland last night, where England just got past Sweden and into the semi-finals of the women’s football European championships. Also a video, and a photo gallery.

I rarely write about football, but at the moment the women’s european championship, being defended by England, is in progress in Switzerland. Last night saw a quarter-final match between England and Sweden. This post looks back at what happened.

BEHIND, BEHIND, AHEAD

Sweden took a 2-0 lead fairly early on in proceedings, and held that lead for a decent span of time. However, England clawed their way back to equality. It was 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes. It was still 2-2 after 30 minutes of extra time. Thus it went to a penalty shoot out. Sweden had marginally the better of the early stages of this, and when their fifth penalty taker stepped up she knew that if she was successful Sweden would be through. She failed to score, which took the teams into a sudden death situation. Another miss by England, and Sweden had a second opportunity to close it out, and again they failed to take it, meaning that there would be at least two further spot kicks. England’s seventh penalty taker was veteran right back Lucy Bronze, who had scored one of their two goals in open play. She kept her head and suddenly after having seen two attempts at victory fail Sweden’s seventh penalty taker had to score to keep her side in the tournament. She sent her shot over the bar and England were through. It was rough luck for Sweden, who have made a habit of reaching quarter-finals and then not managing to go any further in that the moment that the Swedish kicker missed that final penalty was just about the only time of the entire evening that England were in front, and they had been behind for long periods. For England and their coach Sarina Wiegman it keeps the possibly of retaining the trophy (and for Wiegman, who coached her native Netherlands to success two tournaments ago a third straight success at the European Championship). Ultimately however it came down to a battle of nerves and the only non-goalie to keep a cool head in the closing stages of that shootout was Bronze.

PHOTOGRAPHS (AND VIDEO)

Before the photographs, here is the longest video I have ever filmed (just under two minutes, and it shows the train on the Lynnsport Railway being given a test run with no passengers aboard):

My usual sign off…

I have previously been guilty of mislabelling this – it is not a Cinnabar Moth, it is a six-spot Burnet Moth.
This picture and the next, a close up focussing on the insects (two six-spot Burnet moths and one large buff tailed Bumblebee) have already had some success on Mastodon.
A dragon fly balanced on a leaf overlooking one of the sections of the Gaywood in The Walks.
A precarious resting spot – this reed is entirely surrounded by the waters of the Gaywood, near Eastgate Bridge.