Tag: Cormorant

D(eepti) Day for India in Navi Mumbai

An account of events in Navi Mumbai today where India won the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, beating South Africa by 52 runs in the final. Also a photo gallery.

Today was the final of the Women’s ODI world cup, between India, who had chased down an Australian total of 338 to win their semi-final, and South Africa who had thrashed England by 125 runs in their semi-final. This post looks back at an amazing day.

RAIN DELAYS THE START

It started rainy in Navi Mumbai, but the delay was not long enough for any overs to be lost. It was long enough for the BBC’s Team of The Tournament to be publicly named. The selection methodology used by those who set up this poll was questionable, and some of the voters (it was the final result of an online poll) must have had little idea of what they were actually voting for. The single most shocking detail of this team was that collectively the users of the BBC website’s cricket section did not find a place for Deepti Sharma, who came into this final as the leading wicket taker of the tournament and scorer of two half centuries with the bat as well. I named my team in this post and modified it after the first semi-final in this one, and it is my contention that I did a better job than the collective efforts of the voters on the BBC website. TMS commentator Daniel Norcross was every bit as unimpressed with the omission of Deepti Sharma as I was by the way. When the toss finally happened South Africa won it, and unsurprisingly opted to bowl first.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

India started superbly, but did not quite keep the blistering momentum going. Still, in a final a score of 298-7 looked formidable. Shafali Verma made a career best ODI score of 87, and Deepti Sharma weighed in with 58, becoming the first player ever to score three half centuries and claim 10 or more wickets at a single edition of the world cup. Richa Ghosh produced a powerful 34 near the end to give an innings that had been faltering a late lift. Ayabonga Khaka took 3-58 from nine overs, while left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba had the most economical figures, 1-47 from 10 overs.

TWO DIFFERENT CONTESTS

At one end India were working their way steadily through the South African batting order, while at the other Laura Wolvaardt batted with absolute authority. A big moment came when Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur called up part time spinner Shafali Verma as seventh bowler, and was quickly rewarded with the wickets of Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp to make it 123-4. Sinalo Jafta yet again demonstrated the she is NOT, repeat NOT, an international number six, making 16 off 29 balls, which caused the RRR to climb to 7.5 an over. Annerie Dercksen came next and made a spirited 35 before Sharma, whose day this was becoming, bowled her with an absolute jaffa to make it 209-6. The decisive moment came 1.4 overs and 11 runs later, when Laura Wolvaardt, who had just followed her magnificent 169 in the semi-final by also clocking up three figures in the final, went big against Sharma and was well caught by Amanjot Kaur for 101 to make it 220-7. Twice in the group stages Nadine de Klerk had won South Africa games that looked lost when they were chasing, so some hope remained for South Africa. Three balls and one run later Tryon was given LBW, and a review did not save her. That left de Klerk to attempt to knock off 78 more runs with two rank tail enders for company. On the last ball of the 44th over Ayabonga Khaka, who should have known the de Klerk was desperate to retain the strike and would run almost no matter what failed to back up properly, and Deepti Sharma’s throw beat her to the wicket keeper’s end to make it 246-9. The first two balls of the 46th over, Sharma’s 10th and last were dots, but off the third Nadine de Klerk went aerial and picked out Indian skipper who accepted the chance, giving Deepti Sharma her fifth wicket of the innings and 22nd of the tournament, easily the most of anyone. In the end Verma, with 87 off 78balls and 2-36 from seven overs was named Player of the Match, while Sharma with 215 runs and 22 wickets across the tournament was a shoo-in for Player of the Tournament, making the failure of users of the cricket section of the BBC website to select her for Team of the Tournament look even more egregious than it had before the start of play. Full scorecard and other details here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Two Great Turnarounds

A look back at yesterdays and todays Women’s World Cup matches, each of which saw the lower ranking side on top at times, and a photo gallery.

This post looks at two women’s world cup matches (I got more of yesterday’s than I usually would on a Tuesday because my employer had a commitment at West Raynham and wanted to go straight home once he had finished there, and there was no one else at work yesterday, so I ended up only being at work for a couple of hours, and being home in time for most of the England innings), Bangladesh v England and Australia v Pakistan.

YESTERDAY

When Bangladesh could do no better than 178 against England the match had all the signs of being ‘minnow v shark’. However Bangladesh are known to be stronger in bowling than they are in batting, and they rose to the occasion magnificently. When England were 103-6, with Heather Knight having escaped dismissal on three occasions, and still looking far from convincing a seismic shock looked on the cards. However Charlie Dean for all that she is selected for her bowling is a competent lower order batter as well, and she and Knight pulled the game round, Dean playing a determined supporting role while Knight blossomed from her difficult start to play the decisive innings. Knight’s first 15 runs occupied 50 balls and featured the three escapes mentioned. Her last 64 came off 61 balls. Dean and Knight added 79 undefeated runs for the seventh wicket (the winning hit, made by Dean, was a four). England made it two wins out of two to start the tournament, but it was a heck of a fight, and Knight probably used her entire tournament’s allocation of good fortune in the early part of what became the match winning innings.

TODAY

Absolutely no one would have expected today’s match to provide much of a contest – Australia have never lost to Pakistan in any format of women’s cricket. However between some poor Australian batting and some excellent Pakistan bowling Australia found themselves struggling at 76-7. It was here that their immense batting depth came in to play. First Kim Garth helped Mooney to raise the score 115, and then came the real revival. Alana King, undoubtedly the best batter to be at number 10 in anyone’s line up at this tournament, joined Mooney in a partnership of two parts. First they took the innings within two overs of its scheduled end, adding 72 in the process, with Mooney reaching three figures, a mark that took her 110 balls to reach and contained a mere nine fours (no sixes) – almost as if Joe Root was a left handed female instead of a right handed male. Then in the last two overs they went a bit crazy – going into those two overs Australia were on 187, and by the end of their innings they had reached 221. Mooney was out to the last ball of the innings for 109 (114), but it was King who had done most of the damage in those last two overs, boosting her score to 51 not out (a maiden ODI 50) from 49 balls, with three fours and three sixes, the only such hits of the innings. Mooney’s Brisbane upbringing may have left her better equipped to handle the heat and humidity of Colombo than many non-natives but it was still a remarkable feat of endurance to bat for so long and to run so many runs in those conditions. Sadly Pakistan were not able to offer anything with the bat barring 35 from Sidra Amin and some determined resistance from the lower order (the last three Pakistan wickets, after Amin’s dismissal, held out for just over 15 overs between them), and in the end Australia had won by 107 runs, but do not be fooled by the magnitude of their final victory – there would have been moments when they were seriously worried. As it is they have now won two matches and had one rained out. Pakistan have some wonderful bowlers, but their batting is too weak. Sidra Amin has scored six ODI centuries, but her team mates have a grand total of four between them.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This is a page from my current ‘bus book’
A fine snail this morning.
A cormorant and an egret a few feet apart.

India Victorious Over Pakistan

A look back at today’s women’s world cup match between India and Pakistan and a photo gallery.

Yesterday’s women’s world cup match between Australia and Sri Lanka was washed away without a single ball bowled meaning that the points were shared. Today saw India taking on Pakistan in Colombo. India had won their opening match against Sri Lanka, while Pakistan had been beaten by Bangladesh.

A LOW SCORING BATTLE

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl, perhaps reckoning that dew would make bowling more difficult in the second innings. They bowled pretty well, and no Indian managed to reach 50 (Jemima Rodrigues with 46 was top scorer). India did have other useful but not major contributions, and an explosive innings from Richa Ghosh at the death boosted them to a final score of 247. India bowled excellently, and only Sidra Amin played an innings of any substance for Pakistan. Kranti Goud, right arm medium fast, led the way for India, recording figures of 10-3-20-3. Renuka Singh Thakur, right arm medium, was economical but wicketless, ten overs for 29. Sidra Amin fought her way to 81, but was playing a lone hand. Pakistan rustled about a mere 159, going down by 88 runs. Kranti Goud was correctly named Player of the Match for a near flawless bowling performance.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

There was some seriously unpleasant weather around both on Friday and yesterday.
An autumnal wall near Kettlewell Lane.
The evening was a bit brighter.
This one was in my kitchen the night before last.
A crane fly not far from the station.
The autumnal wall again.
A muntjac viewed through the Lynnsport Railway tunnel.
A splendid crane fly.
A ‘reverse video’ ladybird – red markings on a shiny black carapace.

The 45th Ryder Cup

A look back at the Ryder Cup, played at Bethpage Black golf course over the weekend. Also a photo gallery.

Over the weekend the USA and Europe did battle for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black golf course, Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. This post looks back at what happened.

THE TEAM ELEMENT

On Friday and Saturday team element of the tournament, one set of four foursomes and one set of four fourballs on each day, took place, before the event concluded with the 12 singles matches. In foursomes the players play alternate shots, so only two balls are in play in each group. In fourballs all four players are in action, each playing their own balls. Europe were utterly dominant over these two days, winning all four sets of matches, a first. USian world number one Scottie Scheffler set a less welcome new record – he became the first player in Ryder Cup history to be part of losing pairs in all four sets of matches over the first two days. Europe looked and played like a team, the USA like a collection of individuals. Keegan Bradley, the USian captain, was last involved in a Ryder Cup over a decade ago, while two of his assistants had no prior Ryder Cup experience at all and another, Jim Furyk, had mainly been on losing teams in his own Ryder Cup days. In all Europe led going into the final day by 11.5 to 4.5, with 14 being enough for them to retain the cup and 14.5 enough to win it outright. The biggest end of day two lead ever successfully overturned at a Ryder Cup is 10-6, by the USA at Brookline in 1999 and by Europe in ‘The Miracle of Medinah’ in 2012. In the latter match Europe were 10-4 down with the last two fourballs matches in play, and won both those games, with Ian Poulter putting in an Olympian performance to turn one of them round in its closing stages, whereas at Bethpage the last point on Saturday was won by Europe to extend their lead.

THE SUNDAY SINGLES

Before the day even started the score line changed. Viktor Hovland for Europe had a neck injury and was forced to pull out, which meant that a USian also had to pull out. As luck would have it the person who had been picked by the captain as the US’s fall guy in this event (each side puts one name in an envelope to cover for emergency withdrawals by the other side) was Hovland’s scheduled opponent anyway, so other than the award of half a point to each team, which made it USA 5, Europe 12 nothing else changed. The USA generally outpoint Europe in the singles, but Europe’s lead was so huge that a US comeback was the longest of long shots. USA did indeed outpoint Europe, but not by as much as they needed to. Only one European actually won a singles match on this day, Ludwig Aberg (that surname is apparently correctly pronounced like “oh-bairj”), but three other Europeans took half points from their matches, so the final score was USA 13 Europe 15. Europe thus retained the Ryder Cup, winning in the USA for only the fourth time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Even at the tail end of September there are still butterflies about – this one was in Kettlewell Lane park this morning.

Glory for Gloucestershire

A look back at the finale to the longest day of the English cricket calendar, the T20 blast final between Gloucestershire and Somerset. Also a photo gallery.

I covered the semi-finals yesterday, immediately after the second of them concluded. This post looks at the final, between the two west country sides, Gloucestershire and Somerset.

APPLYING THE SQUEEZE WITH THE BALL

Both sides were unchanged from their semi-final successes. Gloucestershire won the toss and decided to bowl first. Somerset started fast, but Matt Taylor got Will Smeed with the first ball of the fourth over to make it 28-1. Taylor ended that fourth over by removing the other Somerset opener, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, for 20. Then in the sixth over James Rew became Taylor’s third victim. The third ball of the seventh over, bowled by Oliver Price, got through the defences of Dickson, one of the batting heroes of Somerset’s semi-final victory, for a duck, and Somerset were 42-4 and in a pile of trouble. They never really extracted themselves from this predicament, though skipper Lewis Gregory fought his way to a half century. Gregory’s innings was terminated by David Payne with the penultimate ball of the 19th over, with the score on 123. It was Payne’s 33rd wicket of the tournament, equalling the all time record for a single year of this competition, set by Alfonso Thomas of Somerset some years ago. Only one further run accrued before Jake Ball was out with two balls of the innings left. A toral of 124 left Somerset in ‘miracles required’ territory 0 the previous lowest ever total defended successfully in a final was 145 by Somerset themselves last year and by Leicestershire a few years back.

KILLING THE CHASE

Somerset needed early wickets to have any chance at all of defending their decidedly modest score, and they did not get them. Miles Hammond and Cameron Bancroft were soon scoring at well above the required rate. A ten wicket win looked likely when both were going great guns. By the time Bancroft finally fell to a catch by Smeed off Davey there were only 13 more needed for the win. Bracey fell cheaply, but by then only six were required. Miles Hammond was there at the end, 58 not out from 41 balls (as compared to Bancroft’s 53 from 42 balls), but it was the new batter, Oliver Price, who ended the chase with a six. Gloucestershire had eight wickets and five whole overs to spare, meaning that overall in their semi-final and final they had 16 wickets and 11.2 overs to spare on their opponents. In losing only four wickets on finals day while winning the trophy they had set a new record – the previous fewest wickets lost on the day by a trophy winning side was five by Northamptonshire. Full scorecard here.

Matt Taylor, whose three early wickets put the skids under the Somerset innings, was correctly named Player of the Match. This is Gloucestershire’s first ever T20 Blast trophy, though just a few years before the launch of T20 cricket they had a very successful one-day side. They were named ‘Champion County’ three times in the 1870s, being unbeaten in two of those seasons, and have been runners up six times since the County Championship was put on an organized footing in 1890. Somerset still have shots at two trophies this season – they are in the final of the One Day Cup, and are challenging hard for the county championship (see here).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (remember to click on images to view them at a larger size)…

This cormorant (three pics) was swimming in a stretch of the Gaywood in which I have never previously seen one, which runs more or less past the back of Gaywood Tesco.

All Time XIs – South Africa Since Readmission

The third and final part of mini-series looking at South African cricket history. As usual I also have a fine photo gallery.

This is third part of a mini-series looking at South Africa’s cricket history (follow the links to part one and part two to complete the picture) looking at the period since they were readmitted to international cricket.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *Graeme Smith (left handed opening batter, captain). A superb playing record and a very good win percentage as captain, a role he first took on at a much younger age than most test captains.
  2. Herschelle Gibbs (right handed opening batter). To complement the decidedly functional left hander we have a rather more aesthetic right hander, but one who scored plenty of runs.
  3. Hashim Amla (right handed batter). The only South Africa ever to score a test triple century, just one of many magnificent innings he played over the years.
  4. AB de Villiers (right handed batter, occasional wicket keeper, occasional medium pacer). Best known for his deeds in limited overs cricket, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was still good enough facing a red ball to average 50 with the bat at test level.
  5. Jacques Kallis (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). If one had to pick a single player as the greatest ever produced by South Africa most people would name this man.
  6. Brian McMillan (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). One of the best players of the period immediately after South Africa were readmitted. He was already close to 30 when the opportunity to play test cricket arose, but still averaged 40 with the bat at that level and took some useful wickets along the way.
  7. +Mark Boucher (wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the greatest keepers ever to play the game and a handy lower middle order batter.
  8. Keshav Maharaj (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). South Africa is not a country that many visiting spinners of recent times would have fond memories of, and his test record (158 wickets at 31.99 to date) has to be viewed through the lens of how difficult it is to bowl spin in that part of the world these days.
  9. Kagiso Rabada (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). At 28 years of age he has plenty of power to add to his achievements, and he has already achieved enough that he will rank among the greats of the game even if he does nothing more.
  10. Allan Donald (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). He had the opportunity to qualify for England through residence, playing county cricket for Warwickshire in the 1980s, but chose not to do so, believing that South Africa would be readmitted in time for him to play for them. They were, and although Donald was nearer 30 than 20 by the time the opportunity came he showed the world what followers of county cricket had already been well aware of – he was both seriously quick and seriously accurate.
  11. Dale Steyn (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). At his peak he was indisputably the best fast bowler in the world, and his record, as with Donald and Rabada, puts him among the finest ever.

This side has a powerful batting line up, three of the finest fast bowlers ever to play the game, a quality spinner, a great keeper, a great captain, and two of the six batters would be legitimate bowling options as well.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The biggest miss by far was Shaun Pollock. I do not like not having any spin available, and Boucher at six and Pollock at seven would be something of gamble. I always select with long form cricket in mind, so I want the best keeper. But for this latter I could get Pollock in on a minor gamble by playing Quinton de Kock as keeper, have him bat at six (dropping McMillan), Pollock at seven, one place above his most frequent slot for SA, and then my four chosen bowlers.

Dean Elgar was a gritty and determined left handed opener, but with Smith inked in I wanted my second opener to be right handed, so he missed out. Gary Kirsten, another tough left handed opener can have a coaching gig – another job he has done well.

Had Daryll Cullinan been able to handle Australian leg spinners as well as he did other bowlers he would have given me more pause than he actually did. He averaged six runs less per knock at test level than de Villiers to whom I gave his regular number four slot.

Francois ‘Faf’ Du Plessis was a good middle order batter, but South Africa’s power in that department over the years keeps him out. Also in his last innings against England he repeatedly handled the ball – England complained about it, but wrongly IMO did not use the ultimate sanction of appealing against him – the umpire would have had to raise the finger.

Ashwell Prince had a respectable test record but again the strength of the middle order keeps him out.

I would have liked to be able to include Paul ‘frog in a blender’ Adams, but his record was unfortunately not as remarkable as his bowling action.

Two seriously fast bowlers who had to miss out were Mornantau ‘Nantie’ Hayward who was to inconsistent to challenge my actual choices and Anrich Nortje who does not yet have the weight of achievement to merit selection.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Pakistan in Trouble in Boxing Day Test Match

A look at the first two days play between Australia and Pakistan at the MCG and a splendid photo gallery.

The Boxing Day test match between Australia and Pakistan at Melbourne has now seen two days play, albeit one of them disrupted by the weather, and is beginning to take shape.

THE AUSTRALIAN INNINGS

Pakistan won the toss and elected to put Australia in to bat. A truncated opening day ended with the hosts 187-3 after a “curate’s egg” bowling and fielding effort by Pakistan. At 226-4 Australia still looked very well placed, but then Pakistan fought their way back into things, and Australia eventually tallied a mere 318, respectable after being sent in but by no means formidable. Marnus Labuschagne with 63 had the only half century off the bat in the innings, but Pakistan may well come to regret the fact that they allowed Extras to tally a half century as well (52, including 15 wides). Debutant Aamer Jamal claimed three wickets, while Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mir Hamza and Hasan Ali each had two, and Agha Salman, brought on to bowl the last over before lunch on day one, was gifted the wicket of David Warner.

THE PAKISTAN RESPONSE TO DATE

Pakistan began well, and at 124-1 it looked like things were going their way, but then came a passage of play that completely changed things. Pat Cummins removed Abdullah Shafique for 62, hanging on to a hard return chance. Then he widened the breach by bowling new batter Babar Azam for 1. Lyon got Shan Masood for 54, Hazlewood produced a beauty to get through the defences of Saud Shakeel for 9, and Pakistan were 151-5 and in a lot of trouble. Cummins claimed a third scalp of the innings when he got one to take the edge of Salman’s bat to make it 170-6. However Jamal defended stoutly, while wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, who had performed better behind the stumps than 20 byes and 15 leg byes might suggest, batted well. When the cut off time arrived Pakistan were 194-6, with Rizwan 29*. Much rests on him on day three – it will largely by his further contribution or lack of it that decides whether Australia will have a really commanding lead or not. At the moment Australia are in the box seat, but many worse positions than the one Pakistan are currently in have seen sides emerge victorious.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Yesterday morning was bright and sunny, and I got out for a long walk while the weather was pleasant. I was well rewarded, including sightings of an egret and a couple of cormorants among other things…

An egret in the mud on the west side of the Great Ouse, opposite Hardings Pits (features in six pictures)
Cormorants at one of their most regular perching spots (10 pictures)

A Classic and an Upset

An account of an astonishing day at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, one good both for the tournament and for the sport as a whole, though not good for England. Also a photo gallery.

Today saw two matches at the ODI Cricket World Cup, both of which in their own ways were excellent news for the tournament and for the sport as a whole. These are described in today’s post. Yesterday’s game between Pakistan and South Africa turned into an absolute nail biter, South Africa sneaking home by one wicket, and then came today’s events.

THE TRANS-TASMAN DERBY

Australia got away to an absolute flyer, with the scoring rate almost 12 an over for the first ten overs. However once David Warner and Travis Head were out in quick succession the innings lost momentum for a period. In the end it took a late flurry by Pat Cummins to boost the final total to 388-7. New Zealand also started fast with the bat, and were never wholly out of contention at any stage of the chase. In the end 19 were needed off the final over, and Mitchell Starc, who had a shocking match, had to bowl it. When Jimmy Neesham was run out coming back for a desperate second on the penultimate ball it meant that injured number 11 Lockie Ferguson had to attempt to score six off the one remaining delivery to pull off an epic chase. In the event the delivery was a dot ball and Australia had won by five runs. The aggregate of 771 was a new record for any World Cup match, beating the 754 between South Africa and Sri Lanka (428 plays 326) earlier in this tournament.

BANGLADESH v NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands batted first and managed to tally 229, being out to the last ball of their 50 overs. It was then that the fun started. In spite of the fact that conditions at Eden Gardens, Kolkata are rather closer to those experienced by Bangladesh on a regular basis than those best known to the Dutch it was the latter who made better use of them. Bangladesh were soon 63-4, then 69-5, then 74-6. A seventh wicket stand of 34 offered temporary reprieve. When the vastly experienced Mahmudullah was eighth out for 20, leaving numbers 9,10 and 11 in the order to score in excess of 100 at over six an over the writing was firmly on the wall, and although the tail enders showed rather more grit than most of their supposed betters with the bat the final margin was 87 runs, a second victory of the tournament for the Netherlands, and a result which condemned England, whose next outing is against hosts India tomorrow, to bottom place in the table, behind Bangladesh on net run rate. The single most damning aspect of a dismal performance by a team who have had test status for over 20 years and signally failed to make full use of being at cricket’s top table was the fact that even in the spin bowling department, always their greatest strength, Bangladesh were outdone by their opponents. Aryan Dutt for the Netherlands was allowed to record figures of 1-26 from his ten overs, while second spinner Colin Ackermann, primarily a batter, emerged with 7-1-25-1. The Dutch are to be congratulated, and I for one will be far from surprised should they add to their two wins in what is left of the group stage.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

These four pictures show a rather unusual choice of resting place for a cormorant. This tree overlooks a pond, but the bird is way above water level.

England v Ireland So Far

A look at developments in the England v Ireland ODI so far and a large photo gallery.

The one-day series between England and Ireland should have started on Wednesday at Headingley, but not a single ball was bowled in that game. Today, officially the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere, is a much pleasanter day than Wednesday was, and the second scheduled match, at Trent Bridge, is proceeding with no weather related problems.

FOUR ENGLAND DEBUTANTS

England are not using any of their selected world cup players (tournament gets underway in early October, in India, with a replay of the 2019 final – England v New Zealand) in this series. The XI selected for this match includes four debutants, Sam Hain (batter, ridiculous given his domestic white ball record that he has waited this long), Jamie Smith (batter/ keeper, hugely talented youngster), George Scrimshaw (pace bowler, again very talented, though alsob very inexperienced, and the first Derbyshire player since Dominic Cork in 2002 to feature for England) and Tom Hartley (left arm spinner, decent limited overs record, but a surprise for me to see him in the side).

ENGLAND’S INNINGS

Ireland put England in, and Phil Salt and Will Jacks opened up for England. Salt made a rapid 28 before he and stand-in skipper Crawley fell in the space of three balls. Then Jacks and Duckett had an excellent stand before Duckett fell for 48. That brough debutant Sam Hain to the crease, and he and Jacks proceeded to share a superb partnership, ended only when Jacks holed out on the boundary trying to bring up his century with a six. Jacks’ 94 was still the third best ever score for England by someone with first two initials WG behind WG Grace’s two test tons – 152 on debut at The Oval in 1880 and 170 at the same ground six years later. Debutant number two, Smith, managed only nine but a fluent 32 from Carse at number seven maintained the tempo. The closing overs featured a race against the clock for Hain to reach a debut century, but four balls from the end he too holed out with the landmark just about in sight – 89 in his case, off 82 balls. England ended up with 334-8 from their 50 overs.

IRELAND’S REPLY TO DATE

George Scrimshaw was given the new ball, and he had a traumatic start as an international bowler, conceding a number of wides and no-balls. However, with the last ball of his second over he claimed the wicket of Andrew Balbirnie, and then Matt Potts got Stirling with the first ball of the next over. Scrimshaw’s third over was then a massive improvement, going for just a single – 2-0-35-1 becoming 3-0-36-1. Ireland are currently 53-2 in the seventh over, well and truly up with the rate, but already two wickets down.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off, courtesy of an evening walk yesterday and more importantly a long walk on the first autumn morning of the year today…

A ruddy darter at rest (two pics)

While I have been preparing this for publication the game has moved on. Potts has dismissed Campher to make it 69-3 in the ninth over.

County Championship Action Resumes

A brief look at the resumption of the county championship, an account of a ‘Make your own pizza’ session arranged by the West Norfolk Autism Group and a photo gallery.

After a break for The Hundred and The One Day Cup the County Championship has resumed. I am following developments at The Oval where Surrey host Warwickshire (although at the moment only by way of cricinfo – I am listening to commentary on the third T20I between England and New Zealand.

THREE HALF CENTURIES FOR SURREY

Surrey are batting first, and are faring reasonably well. Ben Foakes has just become the third Surrey batter to reach 50, after an aggressive innings by Jamie Smith and much less aggressive one from Sibley, although 65 off 174 is not slow by the opener’s regular standards. I missed the morning session due having a commitment elsewhere, though it is fairly clear from what the commentators have had to say that Ed Barnard has been the best of the Warwickshire bowlers so far. Tea is now being taken, with Surrey 224-4.

MAKE YOUR OWN PIZZA

This morning the West Norfolk Autism Group had a Make Your Own Pizza session for adults, hosted by Pizza Express in King’s Lynn town centre. We started with a lump of dough which had been turned into a pizza base. This process was quite tricky, but I managed to get it done. Once the base was in the baking tray in which it would be cooked the next step was to create a barrier by elevating the edge of the base (as close to the very edge as possible). Then came the application of tomato puree, which was the one element with which I required a little assistance. Then came the selection of ingredients – in my case I said yes to mushrooms, pepperoni and olives and no to the rest (ham, chicken, two types of pepper, both too hot for my tastes, spiced beef and goats cheese), after which it was time add the mozzarella, which needed to be distributed as evenly as possible. Before the cooking there was on e more thing to do – to name our pizzas. I was very pleased with my creation and ate every scrap of it.

The pizza, ready for cooking
The cooked pizza.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A cormorant swimming in the pond nearest my house – not a regular haunt of these birds.