Tag: #Butterflies

The T20 Cups

A look at some recent action in the men’s and women’s T20 cups and a large photo gallery.

Both the men’s and women’s domestic T20 cup competitions are going on at the moment. Yesterday both Surrey teams recorded wins at Southampton. Today Essex Women are closing in on victory over Birmingham Bears Women (I followed the early part of that match, before the first part of today’s action at The Oval got underway). This post looks at some of these matches.

YESTERDAY EVENING

I got home from work yesterday just in time to catch the closing stages of Hampshire Women v Surrey Women. It went down to the very final ball, which Paige Scholfield hit for four to get Surrey over the line. The men’s match provided plenty of entertainment, but not a close finish. Surrey’s strong bowling unit, given a total of 193 to defend by their batters, were simply too good for the Hampshire batting, and the margin was very substantial in Surrey’s favour. Southampton has been a happy hunting ground for Surrey men in this tournament – they last lost to Hampshire there way back in 2015. Is it time for Hampshire to schedule this fixture for an out ground? Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Basingstoke have all staged matches over the years.

TODAY

Essex won the toss and batted. They scored 150-3 from their 20 overs, Cordelia Griffith scoring 47 not out of 36 balls and Madeline Penna 41 not out off 42 balls. Some good captaincy by Grace Scivens, at 21 a very young skipper, and some ordinary batting from Warwickshire seemed to have settled it. At 111-6 it looked all done. However, since then another youngster, Charis Pavely, a left arm spin bowling all rounder, has been showing an audience that includes a number of school parties what she can do with the bat, and it now looks like Birmingham Bears are going to win. Pavely is currently 67* (38), with five fours and three sixes.

Surrey Women are currently in action against Lancashire Thunder Women, while the second half of this somewhat unorthodox double header will feature Surrey Men against Sussex Sharks Men. The current match started with a bang – Bryony Smith hitting the first ball of it for four and then being bowled by the second to give Sophie Morris instant revenge. Sophia Dunkley got to 10 and was then bowled by Tara Norris. Then a disastrous piece of running between the wickets cost Surrey the wicket of Kira Chathli. A mini-revival led by Grace Harris and with Danni Wyatt-Hodge struggling but fighting gamely has just ended with Wyatt-Hodge going stumped by Threlkeld off Sophie Morris to make it 50-4 in the eighth over, S Morris 2-5. Paige Scholfield has joined Harris.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A new insect sighting – for all its colouring this is too large to be any kind of bee or wasp.
Photographing swallows is hard because they move fast and a are never at rest.
A Cinnabar Moth
A Cinnabar Moth caterpillar.
The hot weather we are having here in King’s Lynn has brought the dragonflies out.
Two Little Egrets in one frame.

Leicestershire Recover From Awful Start

A look at the first innings of the One Day Cup final and a large photo gallery.

Today is the final of the One Day Cup. The match is happening at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, and the two teams to reach the final are Hampshire and Leicestershire. This post looks at developments in the first 50 overs.

A TERRIBLE START

Leicestershire won the toss and chose to bat first. They were soon reeling at 19-4 (I missed the start, due to an event at King’s Lynn library). Although they mounted a bit of a fightback, the dismissal of Lewis Hill for 42 made it 89-6, and Leicestershire’s cause still looked hopeless…

THE FIGHTBACK

…at this hopeless looking juncture Harry Swindells joined Sam Evans. While Evans fought hard and eventually recorded 60 (84), it was Swindells who really turned the tide. He completed a century at better than run a ball, and with Tom Scriven offering support after the dismissal of Evans, he eventually finished on 117* (96), and had guided has side from the ruins of 89-6 to a defensible 267-7. The Hampshire reply is just getting under way as I type, and it is not the formality they would at one stage have been expecting.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Blast Finals Day

A look at the second and third matches of Blast Finals Day, links to yesterday’s post and the post I put up OTD last year, and a photo gallery.

I covered the first match on T20 Blast Finals day, between Essex and Hampshire in yesterday’s post. Today I look briefly at the other two matches.

SOMERSET v SURREY

Things didn’t look especially great for Somerset when they they finished their 20 overs with a mere 142 on the board. However, Surrey, with all their strength in depth, soon found themselves in trouble, a position that they never managed to get out of. A number of batters made promising starts, but none were able to go on and make a major contribution, and nearly all the dismissals were self-inflicted – going for big shots and holing out to deep fielders. In the end Surrey were all out for a paltry 118, losing by 24 runs, giving Somerset a place in the final.

THE FINAL – ESSEX v SOMERSET

Somerset’s recent record in finals did not make pretty reading, and neither did their recent record in matches against Essex. Somerset found themselves batting first, and again they were not hugely impressive in that department, being all out to the last scheduled ball of their innings, with 145 on the board. However, they bowled very well, and although Essex had moments when things were going decently for them they never looked in command, and in the end they mustered 131, falling short by 14 runs. Most toss winning captains in T20 elect to chase, and Somerset twice found themselves setting the target, the less liked option in this format, and twice they produced a moderate batting performance and rescued themselves with the ball and in the field. While Surrey certainly donated plenty of wickets, bad batting played much less of a role in the Essex match. Ben Green of Somerset achieved a notable feat by taking his 30th wicket of the tournament, a rare landmark for single edition of this competition. Many would have expected Surrey and Hampshire to be the ones to make the final, and Surrey to run out winners, so credit to both finalists, and especial credit to Somerset for finally ending a bad run in finals by winning this one.

LINK AND PHOTOGRAPHS

A year ago today I published the second post in what went on to become the longest series on this blog, an all time XI with surnames beginning with B. Although I remain happy with the selection I add one caveat – if the pitch looks very spin friendly (think Ahmedabad!) I would bring Len Braund (leg spinning all rounder) in for Ian Botham, and replace leg spinner who could bat Benaud with Bishan Singh Bedi (left arm orthodox spinner) to balance the attack, with the new ball pair of Barnes and Bumrah now being backed by a spin trio of Bedi, Bates and Braund, the XI in this specific case reading: C Bannerman, SG Barnes, *DG Bradman, KF Barrington, AR Border, LC Braund, +Wasim Bari, *W Bates, SF Barnes, BS Bedi, JJ Bumrah.

Now for my usual sign off…

The weather yesterday was not the best for butterflies, but the red admirals have been out in force here in Norfolk.