An account if the first ODI in a three match series between the England and India women’s teams and a large photo gallery.
The ODI series between the England and India women’s teams started today at 1PM, at the Utilita Bowl near (not in) Southampton. This series has a little extra importance as there is an ODI world cup coming up later this year, so both sides were looking to put down a marker.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Nat Sciver-Brunt was fit to play, though not to bowl, which left England with a dilemma in terms of the balance of side. In the event they solved the problem by playing a batting all rounder, Alice Davidson-Richards at number six, and five bowlers, of whom two, Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone are useful batters as well. Sciver-Brunt won the toss and chose to bat.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
England started badly with both openers, Tammy Beaumont and wicket keeper Amy Jones going cheaply. Sciver-Brunt and Lamb mounted a fightback, but then both were out in quick succession to make it 97-4, with Sophia Dunkley, on her 27th birthday, being joined by Davidson-Richards. The pair batted superbly, putting on 106 for the fifth wicket. At 203-5 England needed someone to inject some extra speed into the scoring late on, so Ecclestone was promoted ahead of Dean to number seven. Ecclestone scored 23 not out off 19 balls, and Dunkley reached 83 (92). The final ball of the innings, from Amanjot Kaur, bowled Dunkley, in keeping with my belief that there are only three acceptable outcomes to the final ball of a limited overs innings: a boundary, a wicket or at the least a run out attempt.
THE INDIAN REPLY
Kate Cross opened the bowling for England, and unfortunately she was definitely off the boil. At no stage of the innings did she ever look threatening. Lauren Bell had moments with the ball, but only one wicket fell remotely early, Mandhana edging Bell through to Jones for 28 to make it 48-1. The second wicket fell at 94 when Ecclestone got one through the previously very impressive Pratika Rawal for 36. Rawal averages in the60s in this format in her brief career so far. Eight runs later Harleen Deol suffered a dismissal that was probably in all honesty somewhat worse than ‘village’, being run out because although her bat was beyond the crease line she had failed to ground it, a truly amateurish way for a top order batter in an international line up to go. The fourth wicket, that of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was a credit to England however. Kaur was given not out by umpire Redfern, who does not get much wrong, but even though the bowler, Dean, herself wasn’t 100% confident Sciver-Brunt sent it upstairs, and the ball tracking showed that it pitched just outside off, hit Kaur below knee level (and the Indian skipper is not a particularly tall woman) and in line with off stump, and was doing just enough to thump into middle had it not been obstructed. That was 124-4, and brought Deepti Sharma into join Jemimah Rodrigues. From here on to the end Deepti Sharma was in complete control of proceedings, never fussing or panicking. Two further wickets did fall, Rodrigues to a catch by Jones off Filer for 48 and Ghosh stumped by the proverbial country mile after charging at Dean and missing her shot, but as the end of the innings approached the required run rate tumbled. In the end number eight and medium paced bowler Amanjot Kaur, like a ham actor stealing the Oscar winner’s scene, ended proceedings by hitting the first two balls of the 49th over, bowled by Cross, for fours to win the match for India. India had won by four wickets with ten balls to spare, and Deepti Sharma’s 62 not out from 64 balls to mastermind the key stage of the chase quite rightly earned her the Player of the Match award.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
There was a little rain yesterday after a long dry spell, and it brought the snails out.This picture and the five that follow all feature plants that fell victim to ‘grounds maintenance’ shortly after I took the pictures this morning.The last six pictures, including this one offer a preview of my next gallery. This hare was in the woodland section of Salter’s Sanctuary, a small nature reserve in the North Lynn area.A cinnabar moth (yes, there are such things as diurnal moths) enjoying a teazel plant.A close up of the cinnabar moth.
A look back at a test match that was always a tense, attritional contest and over the final two days became an absolute snorter of a match, plus not one but two photo galleries.
Just under three-quarters of an hour ago the third test match of the series between the England and India men’s teams came to an end. I covered the early exchanges in a previous post, and this one picks up more or less where that one left off.
EQUALITY ON FIRST INNINGS
As lunch on the third day approached India were 248-3, with Rahul approaching a century and Pant also going well. Then Rahul, not eager to take lunch with his score still in the 90s went for a run to get the strike back, Pant was hesitant and Stokes’ direct hit throw ran the Indian wicket keeper out. Shortly after the interval Rahul did complete his century, but the landmark disrupted his previously unshakeable concentration, and he was out for exactly 100, caught by Brook off Bashir. The spinner was to suffer a finger injury that severely limited his participation. Ravindra Jadeja now batted well, with support from first Reddy and then Sundar. At 376-6 it looked like the only question would be the size of India’s lead, but then Jadeja was out, edging Woakes through to Smith. The tail then folded and India were all out for 387, exact parity on first innings.
A TALE OF SHIVERED TIMBERS
England’s openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett got through to the close without loss, helped by getting away with some serious time wasting which ensured that there was time for only one over before the 6:30PM cut off.
The following day it soon became clear the batting conditions were much tougher than they had been early in the match. Bumrah bowled superbly, but it was Siraj who got the first breakthrough, having Duckett caught by his new ball bowling partner for 12 to make it 22-1. With scores level on first innings it did not require a wrangler to calculate the lead. Siraj behaved rather badly in the aftermath of the Duckett dismissal, to the extent that he lost some of his match fee. The second wicket was also Siraj’s, Pope LBW for just 5. Then Crawley, who had already enjoyed several slices of luck gave Jaiswal an easy catch off Reddy for 22 to make it 50-3. Root and Brook batted well for a period, but then Brook in a rather bizarre shot choice essayed a sweep at pace bowler Akash Deep, missed it and was bowled. That was 87-4. Remarkably every subsequent wicket in the England innings would also be out bowled. At 154-4 it was looking as though Root and Stokes had stabilized things for England, and speculation was on as to just how big a lead they could carve out. Then Sundar bowled Root for 40. With the most technically accomplished batter in the side gone and the pitch definitely getting tricky England fell away badly. Sundar added Stokes, Smith and Bashir to his scalp bag, Bumrah, never to be denied, dealt with Woakes and Carse. England had mustered 192 in their second innings and would need to bowl very well to defend such a total.
THE END OF DAY FOUR
Archer struck in the second over of the innings, removing Jaiswal for a duck. KL Rahul and Karun Nair scored slowly but looked reasonably comfortable, and at 41-1 it looked like England’s chances of giving India a troubled night’s sleep were fading. Then Carse pinned Nair LBW for 14, a dismissal that may have ended Nair’s return to the side as well. A few moments later Carse added the prize scalp of skipper Shubman Gill, also LBW, for just 6. With the third to last scheduled ball of the day Stokes bowled night watcher Akash Deep all ends up and India overnighted on 58-4, still needing 135 more to win.
PHOTO GALLERY ONE
I have opted to split today’s gallery into two, due its size and also because this is a fairly substantial post…
A DIGRESSION ON NIGHT WATCHERS
I have never been the hugest fan of the traditional night watcher, whereby a tail ender is sacrificed to prevent a proper batter from having to walk in that evening. When Gill was out I was thinking (and posted on mastodon to that effect) in terms of Sundar, who might had he seen it through then gone on to play a proper innings, rather than one of the genuine tail enders if India opted to protect Pant, and I regard the splattering of Deep’s stumps to end day four as a compelling exhibit against sacrificing tail enders in this fashion.
THE FINAL DAY
England started the final day splendidly. Stokes, who put in an epic shift with the ball, and Archer were the early stars. Pant had reached 9 when Archer bowled him to make it 71-5. Ten runs later KL Rahul was hit on the pads by Stokes, it was initially not given, but Stokes, who is pretty good at judging when to use DRS sent it upstairs, and the replay made it clear that it was indeed out. Rahul had scored 39, and his dismissal heaped pressure on Jadeja. Archer then held a return catch and Sundar was on his way without scoring. India were 82-7. Reddy gave Jadeja solid support for a while, lasting 53 balls for his 13 before edging Woakes to Smith. By now the ball was getting soft, and from 112-8 the Indian tail showed a resolve that until that point had been conspicuously absent from its batting. The game at this point was following a pretty much set pattern – four balls of each over at Jadeja with the field set back off the fourth of which he took a single and the last two attacking the tail ender. The scoring was painfully slow, but as the runs gradually ticked up the Indian fans in the crowd made their presence felt. After 22 overs of resistance, which had yielded 35 runs, reducing the ask to 46, Bumrah made his one and only mistake, hitting a ball from Stokes into the hands of sub fielder Sam Cook to make 147-9. Bumrah had only scored 5, but he had resisted for 54 balls. Siraj showed similar levels of determination. Bashir, with two of his fingers bound together due to one being injured, finally got a turn at the bowling crease, and he did not bowl badly. With a target of only 193 the new ball had not looked even a possibility at the start of the innings, but it was now only a few overs away. However, just a few minutes before 5PM on the final day of a contest that always been a tense, attritional affair and had over the last five and a bit sessions become a bona fide humdinger, the injured Bashir induced Siraj to play a ball into his stumps, and India were all out for 170, beaten by 22 runs, putting England 2-1 up in the series. Three results going into this final day were possible, a win for England, a win for India and a tie. The last named had it happened would have been a first in first class cricket – a completely unsplittable tie, with each side having identical first innings (387 plays 387) and second innings (192 plays 192) scores. Stokes, who had had a fine all round game, and had on the final day taken responsibility for bowling England to victory on his own shoulders and put in a truly massive effort was named Player of the Match. A full scorecard of this truly extraordinary test match can be viewed here.
A look back at yesterday evening’s T20I between the England and India women’s teams and a large photo gallery.
The test match between the England and India men’s teams is still going on, and it is a battle royal. Last night the women’s teams assembled at Edgbaston for the fifth and final match of a T2oI series. India had already secured the series but it was still a hard fought match.
PRELIMINARIES
With an ODI series to come, and then a world cup in that format, which gave it priority England made a number of changes. Both the Laurens, Bell and Filer, were rested, as was batter/ off spinner Alice Capsey. England won the toss and opted to bowl…
INDIVIDUAL v TEAM
Shafali Verma played a superb innings for India, scoring 75 off 41 balls, before falling to a catch by Maia Bouchier, playing her first international match since her awful tour of Australia off Charlie Dean, one of three wickets for the off spinner who also went for only 23 in her four overs. No one else really fired, with Richa Ghosh’s 24 off 16 the next best contirbution.
Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge led off with a century opening stand for England, and although they fell close together, Tammy Beaumont, acting captain with Sciver-Brunt hors de combat, played a little gem of an innings, sharing important stands with Bouchier and then Amy Jones. Just as it seemed Beaumont and Jones were carrying England to the win both fell, Beaumont bowled by Reddy for 30 (20), and Jones to a spectacular catch by Radha Yadav in the same over. That left five needed off three balls, but Ecclestone played her first ball well, and she and Paige Scholfield ran hard to get through for three runs, making it two needed off two. A single off each ball, neither with any great risk attached did the job and England had won by five wickets. Dean’s bowling got her the Player of the Match award.
A look at developments in the test match between England and India at Lord’s so far and a huge photo gallery.
The third test of the series between England and India got underway at Lord’s yesterday. This post looks at what has happened so far.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Each side had made changes from Edgbaston. For India Jasprit Bumrah replaced Prasidh Krishna. For England Jofra Archer was in the XI for the first time in four and a half years. Josh Tongue was the player to miss out. The coin was kind to Ben Stokes, and given the heat not even he was about to bowl first (here in Norfolk the temperature has officially not quite hit 30, but it feels exceedingly hot), so England were batting.
THE PLAY
I missed most of day one due to work. I got the closing stages, which featured a bizarre stoppage when Stokes, who had already taken time out of the game by having cramp attended to, decided that he couldn’t bat with ladybirds flying around him, and that play could not continue until the insects (entirely harmless) had been made to fly away, and Root have to overnight on 99 not out. It was an old school type of day, and thus not surprising that the most old school type of player in the line up came to the fore. England had reached 251-4, very slow by their recent standards, but losing only four wickets in the day was good for them. Seven overs had disappeared from the game due to the various delays (the over rate was, as it has been today, very much new school).
Root reached three figures of the first ball of the new day, with a somewhat airy shot which flew away for four. Then Bumrah got busy. accounting for Stokes, and then Root and Woakes in consecutive balls. That was 271-7 and Bumrah had four of the wickets. Jamie Smith was now joined by Brydon Carse, not a good enough batter to called an all rounder, but the possessor of two first class centuries and a career average at that level in the high 20s. They shared a good partnership, which featured an early moment of history. When Smith reached 3 he also reached 1,000 test runs, which meant that for the first time since the Adelaide test match of 1947 England had three batters in their line up who had all scored over 1,000 test runs at an average of over 50. By lunch they had taken England not merely beyond 300, which had looked in doubt when they joined forces, but the 350 as well. Smith had clocked up 50, and even on this pitch and in a largely attritional innings it had taken him only 52 balls to get there. Carse would also go on to top 50, the first time in his test career that he has done so. Bumrah secured his place on the honours board when he clean bowled Jofra Archer, the ninth wicket of the innings and his fifth. Of those scalps four had been clean bowled and Jamie Smith had been caught by the wicket keeper. England scored 387 in total, and Bumrah, the only bowler ever to have taken over 200 test wickets at under 20 runs a piece, had 5-74.
Chris Woakes bowled the first over of the reply, and it was a shocker, conceding 13 including three boundaries, all hit off properly bad balls. Then it was time for Archer from the pavilion end. His first two balls were dots, his third took the edge of Jaiswal’s bat and flew to Harry Brook at second slip – India 13-1, Jaiswal C Brook B Archer 13. Archer bowled five overs in that spell and ended it with 1-16. India have now moved on to 61-1. Karun Nair has 33 not out and KL Rahul 15 not out. Nair’s last four was a little lucky – had Carse placed a fielder at gully it would have been catching practice, but there was no gully and it flew away for four.
PHOTOGRAPHS
There has been a lot to photograph lately – this gallery is a huge one, and that is after I pruned it a bit (and I have another ready to go, and more pictures on my camera)…
A look at happenings in the last four sessions of the test match at Edgbaston and a large photo gallery.
Early yesterday evening Brydon Carse holed to Shubman Gill off Akash Deep for 38 and India had won the second test match of this series for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy by 336 runs. It was an appropriate finale, since Gill was unquestionably Player of the Match, and Akash Deep, whose 10th wicket of the match this was had been the best bowler on either side. I had taken the story up to tea on the fourth day here. This post picks up the story from that point.
THE DECLARATION
India scored a such a rate post tea that by the time they called a halt to the slaughter, at exactly the sort of time expected by most people their lead had mushroomed to 607, meaning England needed 608 to win. Only twice has 600 been topped in the final innings of a first class match, both in timeless (played to a finish however long it takes) matches. At Durban in 1939 England scored 654-5, but their travel arrangements for the journey home from South Africa intervened, forcing an abandonment of a supposedly timeless match, the last test match to be designated as such. Just under a decade late Maharashtra scored 604 in the last innings against Bombay, but such was the preposterous scoring in that match (2,376 runs for 37 wickets!) that they still lost by 354 runs. Shubman Gill has achieved the second highest test match aggregate ever, following his 269 in the first innings with 161 second time round, the first time anyone had a 250+ and 150+ in the same test match (the record match aggregate, 456 by Graham Gooch for England against India at Lord’s in 1990, was comprised of 333 in the first innings and 123 in the second).
ENGLAND’S START
By the close of day four England were 72-3, still 536 short of a target that even the greatest of optimists surely had to admit was by then purely nominal. The three batters dismissed were Crawley, Duckett and most importantly of all Root. Akash Deep had two of them, both clean bowled, while Siraj had been gifted Crawley’s wicket courtesy of a catch to sub fielder B Sai Sudarsan. Barring rainfall of Noachian intensity it was hard to see any way out for England, and frankly they did not deserve to escape defeat either.
THE FINAL DAY
It did rain on the fifth morning, but cleared up in time for play to get underway at 12:40PM. Akash Deep made the first break through when a delivery from hit Pope’s arm and rebounded into the stumps for a dismissal recorded as ‘bowled Deep’. That was 80-4, and three runs later the other overnight batter, Harry Brook was on his way, pinned LBW by Deep for 23. I had a commitment early in the afternoon which necessitated me leaving the cricket (see here for more details). In the time I was out England lost only one further wicket, that of the skipper Stokes for 33. Smith batted superbly for the second time of the match. Woakes after resisting for a while was well caught by Siraj off the bowling of Prasidh Krishna to make it 199-7. Smith hit two successive sixes off short balls from Akash Deep, but when he tried to give a third short delivery the same treatment it was slower than its predecessors had been, he misjudged the pace and Washington Sundar held the catch. That was 226-8 and heralded the last rites of the match. Tongue scored two before he gave Siraj a catch of Jadeja. Shoaib Bashir now joined Carse and they provided some entertainment, adding a rapid 25 which included a six and a four hit by Bashir. Then came the poetic justice moment referred to in the introduction when Carse gave Gill that catch off Deep to end proceedings. Deep had 6-99 for the innings and 10-187 for the match. Siraj had 7-126 for the match, 6-70 and 1-56. This makes it almost certain that Prasidh Krishna will be the one to miss out when Bumrah comes in for the match at Lord’s that gets underway on Thursday morning, though given the remarkable disparity in his records when Bumrah is and is not in the side there is case for it being Siraj to miss out. For England two As, Archer and Atkinson are likely to play, with Tongue and Carse likely to miss out (Woakes is a virtual cheat code at Lord’s, so he will play unless actually injured, and Stokes always wants a spinner in the side). With the weather due to be blazing hot it really should be mandatory for whoever wins the toss at Lord’s to bat first.
A look at developments at Edgbaston where India now have pretty much a complete stranglehold on proceedings and a photo gallery.
When I wrote yesterday’s post the sixth wicket stand between Harry Brook and Jamie Smith was still in progress. This post takes the story forwards from there.
THE END OF THE ENGLAND FIRST INNINGS
The great partnership between Smith and Brook that had partially revived England’s fortunes ended at 303 when Brook fell for 158. England were exactly 200 runs adrift at that point, needing one more to eliminate any chance of being made to follow on (India probably would not have enforced it anyway). They managed that, but not a whole lot more, as Mohammad Siraj and Akash Deep bowled magnificently with the second new ball to slice through the England lower order like a hot knife through butter. The innings ended when Siraj disposed of Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir in successive deliveries, his fifth and sixth scalps of the innings, giving him 6-70 on an absolutely plumb pitch. Deep had the other four wickets, also impressively cheaply on such a surface. England’s 407 was the lowest all out test innings to feature two 150+ scores (at Headingley in 1948 Australia scored 404-3 on the last day to win by seven wickets, with Morris scoring 182 and Bradman 173 not out, the last of his 29 test tons), and was also unique in featuring both two 150+ scores and six ducks (this is itself a joint test record, and unsurprisingly most of the totals to feature that number of ducks have been a lot smaller than 407). India thus had a lead of 180 on first innings.
INDIA PUSH ON
England managed one wicket before the close of play yesterday, by which point India were over 240 ahead. Thus today started with England in urgent need of early wickets. They did not get them, with Karun Nair and KL Rahul being the only casualties of the morning session. India took lunch on 177-3, with Pant and Gill both playing well in their respective styles. The afternoon began at rapid tempo, with Pant in particular going hard. Pant had been badly dropped by Crawley early in his innings, but the other England opener Duckett made no mistake when Pant failed to get quite enough on an attempted big hit off Bashir having hit 65 off 58 balls. That was 236-4, and in order to keep the left/ right handed combination going Jadeja was promoted ahead of Reddy to number six. Just before tea Gill reached his second hundred of the match, only the second Indian to have a double century and a century in the same test match (Sunil Gavaskar scored 124 and 220 against the West Indies in Trinidad in 1970). India went in to tea on 304-4, 484 ahead – already 66 runs more than any side has scored in a test match fourth innings to win. They have just resumed, probably planning to bat another hour, then have a go at England tonight, resume tomorrow with the ball still fairly new and the bowlers having had a night’s rest, and then be able to have a burst with the second new ball at the end of tomorrow if they have not already finished things by then. England are still talking about going for the win, which will surprise no one familiar with this iteration of England, but the truth is India are indeed in total control, and an England win from here would be an almighty shock.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Five hoverflies in one frame – three on the large dandelion head and two hovering nearby.
A look at goings on at Edgbaston where England and India are engaged in a test match. Also a huge photo gallery.
As we approach tea on the third day of the second test match of the series between England and India for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy we have already seen some remarkable cricket.
THE PRELIMINARIES
England named an unchanged side, with the plan being to introduce Archer, fit again after many injury woes, at Lord’s, the second match of these two back to back tests. India made a number of changes. Karun Nair was moved up from number six to number three, B Sai Sudarsan was dropped, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, a batter who bowls medium pace came in at number six. Thakur was dropped, and Washington Sundar brought in to strengthen the batting (his off spin could not be accounted a major factor on an English pitch). India also decided that Jasprit Bumrah could not play both matches of a back to back sequence and reckoned that he would fare better at Lord’s, Akash Deep replaced him at number nine. The Indian line up was loaded with batting depth, but a little light on bowling. Ben Stokes won the toss, and in spite of neither pitrch nor conditions suggesting it, and in spite of India’s batting strength he chose to bowl, the tenth time he has done so out of 11 toss wins on English soil.
THE GLORY OF GILL
Shubman Gill came into this match with a test average in the upper 30s, with many reckoning he had the talent to be doing far better than that. His effort in the first innings here underlined exactly why. With some notable support, chiefly from Jadeja and Sundar at numbers seven and eight in the order Gill, who never previously topped 150 at test level scored 269 from number four in the order, propelling India to a score of 587. A score of that magnitude has sometimes been a prelude to a defeat – at Sydney in 1894 Australia lost after racking up 586 first up, while in a three-day match at Chesterfield in 1904 Essex lost by nine wickets after running up 597 in the first innings, and 78 years later at Southport Warwickshire scored 523-4 declared on day one of three, had Lancashire a wicket down by the close, and lost by ten wickets two days later. However, for all these examples it was not looking bright for England.
HITTING THE FLOOR AND REBOUNDING
England were three wickets down by the end of day two, though Brook and Root had fared reasonably after the top three all got out to bad shots. Root fell early this morning, edging behind to make it 84-4, still 503 adrift. One ball later that was 84-5, Stokes only able to offer a catch to the keeper off a brute of ball from Siraj. Jamie Smith hit the hat trick ball for four, the start of a blistering counter attack that saw him reach three figures before the lunch interval. Brook also went to a hundred, and Smith has now moved past 150, and has so far hit 19 fours and three sixes in the course of his innings. The sixth wicket stand is currently with 252 unbroken, though England are still over 250 short of first innings parity. Mohammad Siraj has three wickets, Akash Deep two, and no other Indian bowler any, and there has not been much threat from any of them either. There was a crazy passage this morning when Krishna attempted to test Smith with “bouncers”, which were at his pace and on this pitch medium paced long hops off which Smith helped himself to a succession of boundaries. This sixth wicket partnership is massively impressive, but am still 100% certain that Stokes should have chosen to bat first. He has chosen to bowl first in both matches, got away with it at Headingley because India had batting collapses in both innings after strong starts (430-3 to 471 all out and 333-4 to 364 all our) but does not look like getting away with it here. I also feel that India’s selection was fundamentally defensive – if they were resting Bumrah then left arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav should have been selected to give the attack a bit of bite. The tea interval has arrived while I have been preparing this for publication, with England 341-5, still 246 short of first innings parity.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
This oystercatcher was on the roof of the church of St Peter and St Paul in Fakenham, an inland town.These four pictures showing a large group of Greylag geese were taken through the window of a bus, while it was stopped opposite Great Massingham’s village green.Four into three does not go – four hoverflies and three dandelion heads in this case.A European peacock butterfly on a buddleia about 100 yards from King’s Lynn station.A squirrel running along a high wall (it is a surviving section of town wall)Two for one on dragonflies by the Gaywood river.
A look at some of the absurd scoring permitted by the use of the Kookaburra ball in the English county championship, with particular reference to Surrey v Durham. Also a photo gallery.
If any good is going to come out of a round of championship matches that is producing a series of ridiculous scores it will be that the resultant fiesta for Frindalls* will finally deal the death blow to the nonsense of the Kookaburra ball being used in English county championship matches. This post looks at the match I have been following, which has seen the most absurd scoring of the lot.
SURREY v DURHAM
Durham won the toss and chose to bowl first, paying more attention to the fact that The Oval is generally a good ground for bowling first than the fact that this round of matches is being played with Kookaburra balls. It was soon apparent that that the latter was by far the more important. Burns and Sibley started with a stand of 95 before Burns and Ryan Patel fell in quick succession. Then Sam Curran played a superb innings, scoring 108 and helping the third wicket to put on 170. That was a mere curtain raiser for the fourth wicket stand between Dominic Sibley and Dan Lawrence. By the close of play yesterday their stand was worth 129 and Surrey at 407-3 looked in total control. By lunch time today they had motored on to 597-3 – 190-0 in the session. At 612, having just beaten his career best Lawrence fell for 178. That brought Will Jacks to the crease, and he was soon scoring rapidly without really appearing to be trying to do so. Sibley passed 300, and thoughts of the all time Surrey record individual score were passing through minds (357 not out by Bobby Abel against Somerset in 1899). The score had reached 745 when Sibley was caught by Colin Ackerman off Will Rhodes for 305, the seventh highest ever individual score for Surrey and easily a record for Surrey v Durham (Mark Butcher with 191 had been the previous holder). Jacks became the fourth centurion of the innings, taking a mere 85 balls to reach the mark. In the run up to tea Surrey lost several wickets, and when Lawes was eighth out the interval was taken, with the score 803-8. Surrey, perhaps aware of the records still in the offing or perhaps in a show of contempt for the use of the Kookaburra, batted on after the interval. A six by Will Jacks took the score to 814-8, Surrey’s highest ever first class score and the highest first class score ever amassed against Durham, beating the 810-4 by Warwickshire when Brian Lara scored 501 not out. Jacks also hit the following ball for six and then got out to the next, and finally at 820-9 Surrey called halt to the slaughter. George Drissell, a 26 year old off spinner who had failed to make the grade at Gloucestershire, had 1-247 from 45 overs, the most expensive innings figures in County Championship history (the all time record is Arthur Mailey’s 4-362 for New South Wales against Victoria, while the record in England is left arm wrist spinner Chuck Fleetwood-Smith’s 1-298 when England piled up 903-7, also at this ground, against Australia in 1938).
SOUTHAMPTON STUPIDITY
Adam Hose, once of Warwickshire and now of Worcestershire, does not have a stellar first class record. Even after the ridiculous events at the Utilita Bowl yesterday he has an FC average of below 30. This guy, who is barely even in the average FC batter class, plundered 266 off just 253 balls. With Jake Libby, a solid opener, also topping 200 Worcestershire declared around teatime today on 679-7. There have been many other big scores around the country. The only match to be progressing on something approaching normal county championship lines is at Chesterfield, where Lancashire amassed 367 and Derbyshire are 259-9 in reply.
*William Howard ‘Bill’ Frindall was Test Match Special’s statistician for about the first quarter-century of my cricket listening life.
A look at the pernicious effects the Kookaburra ball is having on the county championship and a photo gallery.
It has been a while since I last posted. The day after the end of the test match that I wrote about in my previous post was the last day of a round of county championship fixtures, while today is the first day of another round of such fixtures. Both these rounds have been played with a Kookaburra ball, the ‘invasive species’ of my title, rather than the traditional Duke ball.
MORE THAN A FISTFUL OF DRAWS
The last round of championship fixtures saw the maximum of nine matches being played. Seven ended in draws, with a definite result varying in unlikeliness from the Derbyshire game, where the draw was only confirmed with a mere two balls to play to the match involving Sussex, where Sussex only bothered to declare their second innings closed because it was 4:50PM, which meant that hands could be shaken on the inevitable draw, with a result having been impossible for some hours. The sole exceptions were Worcestershire v Surrey where the home side had no answer to the defending champions’ firepower and Northamptonshire v Middlesex, where the north Londoners proved vulnerable. For the rest the Kookaburra’s refusal to do anything either in the air or off the pitch led to a lot of boosted batting averages and little else of note. This round of matches looks similar so far, with no side as yet having lost more than four wickets (and we are well into the second session of play, with no rain intervening).
This is the third season of a trial introduction of the Kookaburra into certain rounds of the county championship, and I seriously hope that the ECB take note of the negative effect of this ball and banish it back to the antipodes where it belongs. The ridiculous thing is that in home test matches the Duke ball is still used, so most of the best bowlers aren’t bowling much with the Kookaburra anyway as they are away with England.
Of course the Kookaburra is not the sole factor contributing to the preponderance of drawn matches – the ludicrous scaling of point awards that makes a draw worth 50% of a win also induces caution – a draw with a large haul of bonus points could be worth as much as 16 points, while a win in a low scoring match might only be worth 19, so high scoring draws are not much less valuable than wins in low scoring matches.
A look back at the test match that finished yesterday evening in a comfortable win for England, and at some of the other classics that Headingley has served up down the years. Also a photo gallery.
Just after 6:30 yesterday evening Jamie Smith hit Ravindra Jadeja for six, his second such blow in the space of four balls to take England to a five wicket win just after the last hour had been called (there had been rain early in the day, hence the late running of proceedings – in England at this time of year there was absolutely no danger of the light closing in). In truth, for all the size of the target England had been set (371), they never really looked in trouble. This post looks back at the match and some of the other classics that the Yorkshire ground has produced over the years.
INDIAN VULNERABILITIES
At 12:30 on day two India, put in to bat by Stokes, were 430-3 and a total somewhere north of 600 looked likely. Then a collapse set in, and India ended up with 471, still a big score, but a lot less than it might have been. England fought their way almost to parity, managing 465, in the course of which it became obvious that India’s bowling menace began and ended with the great Jasprit Bumrah (the only bowler to have over 200 career test wickets at an average of under 20 a piece). The second Indian innings was remarkably similar in structure to the first – at 333-4 they looked to have wrested the initiative right back, but again they suffered a collapse, the last six wickets going for 31 to make them 364 all out, leaving England to score 371 in the final innings in just over a day. I missed most of the final day’s action (all bar the last hour or so of the chase), but I can tell you that Duckett and Crawley launched the chase with a stand of 188, and that the nearest India came to creating worry was when Duckett (149) and Brook (0) fell in very quick succession to make it 253-4, 118 still needed/ Root and Stokes put on 49 together for the fifth wicket before the skipper was out, and then Smith joined Root for the denouement. This passage of play, most of which I was tuned in for, saw the Indian bowlers horrifically exposed, and it has to be said also saw some undistinguished captaincy from Gill, new to the job at this level. It became clear that he was pinning all his hopes on the second new ball, but it was also clear that England were scoring freely enough that by the time he got to take it he would have very little to defend. In the event Bumrah was off the field when the new ball became due, and Siraj took it from the Kirkstall Lane end, which would have been Bumrah’s natural end to bowl from, and such was Gill’s trust in the capacities of either Krishna or Thakur that he used Jadeja, the spinner, from the other end. Jadeja had found some turn, but he had claimed only one wicket, and even before the Smith onslaught on him that ended proceedings he had been conceding runs at closer to four than three per over (the Smith fusillade pushed that ER over four). Neither Sudarsan, debuting at number three (presumably to avoid him having to occupy Kohli’s former slot one place lower down, which Gill did instead) nor Nair, restored at number six, managed many runs, and from number seven downwards, save for a couple of big hits by Jadeja in the second Indian innings, runs were conspicuous by their complete absence. Bumrah, Siraj and Krishna are all really number 11s, and number eight is probably a position too high for Thakur, though the latter’s medium pace is a very doubtful asset – in this match he was neither economical nor threatening – his two second innings scalps were both down to batter error, not to good bowling. Until this match, in all of first class cricket history (and some 60,000 matches are officially designated as first class) no team had lost a match in which they had had five individual centuries (Jaiswal, Gill, Rahul and two from Pant). If India are going to have as weak an 8-11 as they had in this match they cannot have someone of Jadeja’s type at seven (he is worth his place as a test match number seven, but he is a conventional player by nature, not an explosive one, and with limited time available due to the weakness of the tail an explosive number seven is needed).
ENGLAND STRENGTHS
In the only innings in which they were required England’s 8-11 contributed far more than their Indian equivalents with the bat. Also Josh Tongue, though he did not do very well against the top and middle order did exterminate the Indian tail very swiftly in both innings, emerging with a match haul of seven wickets (and England have often struggled to deal with opposition lower orders in recent times, so if Tongue can do this on a regular basis he will be very useful to England). In terms of that run chase I would say that this was the match in which Stokes/ McCullum England reached maturity – while they scored those 370 runs at a good rate they were also fundamentally disciplined – Duckett, famed for being averse to leaving anything actually declined to play either of the first two balls of his innings on this occasion. Even the Smith blitz at the finish was calculated – the calculation being that although there was a small amount of turn for him Jadeja actually posed little threat. It was not an exciting finish, because by the time the game had reached that stage England had long since been out of any danger. This was not a ridiculous bish-bash-bosh involving a large measure of fortune, it was an absolutely ruthless hunting down of a target that the side knew they would reach so long as they were not bowled out. The match aggregate of 1673 runs for 35 wickets was a record for any match between these two sides. Full scorecard here.
A PLACE OFHEISTS AND HORROR SHOWS
Headingley has long been a ground noted for generation stories. Here are brief mentions of a few of the other classics
The 1948 Ashes match at Headingley was in some ways a precursor to this one – England reached the dizzy heights of 423-2 in their first innings, before then falling away to be all out for 496, Australia replied with 458, England declared on the final morning at 365-8, and Australia made the target of 404 look a stroll in the park, knocking it off for the loss of three wickets.
The third match of the 1981 Ashes at Headingley was Ian Botham’s first back in the ranks after he had bagged a pair in the drawn match at Lord’s and resigned the captaincy just as the selectors were making up their minds to demote him in any case. Mike Brearley, restored as captain as a way for the selectors to buy themselves a bit of thinking time, actually went so far as to check with the all rounder that he actually wanted to play. Bob Willis, then 32 years old and with dodgy knees, also nearly missed out (an invitation was actually sent to Mike Hendrick and then revoked). Australia batted first and scored 401-9 declared on a pitch on which as Brearley told his bowlers “a side could be bowled out for 90”. Botham had taken 6-95 in that innings, has first five-for since before he had become captain. Botham also scored 50 in England’s first innings, was they managed a meagre 174. Australia enforced the follow-on (aversion to doing so is a recent phenomenon), and at first all went well for them. England were 41-4 at one point, then 105-5 when Willey departed. At 133, when the previously impenetrable Boycott was trapped LBW it looked done and dusted, and two runs later when keeper Bob Taylor was dismissed it looked even more so. However, Botham and Dilley now shared an exhilarating stand of 117 in just 80 minutes, Chris Old helped the ninth wicket to add 67 more, during which Botham reached three figures, and even Bob Willis at number 11 provided some support for the reinvigorated all rounder. Many of the England team had checked out of their hotel that morning and now had to book back in for another night – among those who had to do was a certain IT Botham, by then 145 not out. Even with this amazing turnaround Australia still needed only 130 to win, and with lunch on the horizon they seemed to have matters under control at 56-1, just 74 short of the target. At that point Bob Willis was put on to bowl from the Kirkstall Lane end, with his test career on the line. He started by producing a sharp, straight bouncer that Trevor Chappell, who resembled a test class number three in name only, could only fend away for a catch. Then right on the cusp of the interval he struck twice more, removing skipper Kim Hughes, caught in the slips by Botham and then Graham Yallop, caught at short leg by Mike Gatting. Thus at lunch on the final day Australia were 58-4, needing 72 to win, and they suddenly had 40 minutes in which to contemplate the fact that the job was not yet done. After lunch Old rattled Border’s stumps to make 65-5, and then John Dyson, who had been in since the start of the innings essayed a hook at Willis and succeeded only in gloving the ball behind to make it 68-6. Marsh also took Willis on, and Dilley did well at deep fine leg to both hold the catch and keep himself inside the ropes. That was 74-7, and one run later Lawson popped up a catch for Bob Taylor to make it 75-8. Ray Bright and Dennis Lillee staged a late fightback, plundering 35 in four overs, but then Lillee miscued a drive at Willis and Gatting at mid-on ran and dived forward to take the catch and make it 110-9. In the next over Alderman was dropped twice by Old at third slip, but then Willis, summoning up the energy for one more over, his tenth off the reel, produced a yorker that sent Bright’s middle stump cartwheeling, and England, at one stage 92 adrift with only three second innings wickets left had won by 18 runs, only the second time in test history a side had won after following on. Willis, who had been so close to missing the match, and who had been put on for that final spell as a last gamble by Brearley, had taken a ground record 8-43 for the innings.
The 2001 match was a slow burner – it was not until the final innings, with England needing 320 to win that the story happened. That story was Mark Butcher, who was normally a fairly staid batter, suddenly for this one innings batting like Adam Gilchrist in a blue helmet. Butcher in that amazing knock savaged an unbeaten 173 and England won by six wickets after being behind for most of the match.
The 2019 match was one of the great heists of all time. Even with Stokes’ incredible innings it also took Australia burning their last review in the closing stages, which meant that when they found themselves facing a decision a few moments later that would have been overturned they could not send it upstairs.
The match that ended yesterday evening was a worthy addition to the above list – one of only three in which all four innings have been over 350 (Adelaide 1929, and the 1948 match mentioned above being the others).
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