cricket – aspiblog

An Ashes Retrospective

A quick look back at The Ashes series and a photo gallery.

Although England made a fight of the fifth and final match of the Ashes series they were never close to altering the result that had looked likely for some time. They reduced the margin to five wickets, but that was all.

‘BAZBALL’ HAS RUN ITS COURSE

When Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took up their respective positions England had recorded one victory in their previous 17 matches, and their approach had little entertainment. They came into this series with hopes high, especially with Australia’s bowling unit weakened at the start of the series. In the first two matches, when they should have been capitalising on this, and trying to force some serious miles into Mitchell Starc’s legs their batting collapsed three times in four innings, resulting in two heavy defeats. While there was some excuse in Perth where conditions were difficult for batting there was none in Brisbane. There England’s second innings began with the side considerably in deficit and having to bat under the lights early on, but with the knowledge that making it to the close without too much damage would enable them to enjoy the better daytime batting conditions on the morrow. They surrendered six wickets in that session of batting, five of them definitely batter error, and with it virtually guaranteed themselves an 0-2 deficit heading to Adelaide. In Adelaide the loss of both Ashes and series was confirmed. England went into the final innings needing 435 to win, and managed to score 352 of them. The Melbourne match saw England win by four wickets in a match that occupied less than two full days, as neither side managed to bat decently on a difficult track. In Sydney England were second best all the way, though Root in the first innings and Bethell in the second each scored big hundreds batting in traditional test match fashion to provide some comfort for their side. Bethell was only playing because Ollie Pope had fared so badly that England felt it necessary to drop him. Jamie Smith, who is a high class batter when his mind is focussed, had a very poor series, and his two dismissals at Sydney, holing out to deep cover off Marnus Labuschagne, walking into a very obvious trap, and then dozily run out in the second were illustrative of the malaise the gripped England’s batting other than Root and Bethell. Crawley’s returns were pretty much entirely typical of that worthy – some way short of what is required at the highest level, but about what he usually delivers. Ben Duckett had a horror series. It was not so much the four complete failures which made it so – most openers are sometimes dismissed very early, and four such instances out of 10 is not very surprising. The problem was that in the other six innings, in which he got as far as 20 his best effort was a mere 42. To have had an acceptable series as opener he would have needed four of those six starts to become fifties, and two of those four 50+ scores to become hundreds. Brook showed more inclination to dig in once the series was lost, but his early series efforts smacked of both arrogance and laziness.

LACK OF PREPARATION

England came into the first match of the series without having played a genuine match – their ‘warm up’ consisted of a game between themselves and The Lions as England call their reserve squad, in which both sides used more than 11 players. Then, although the Prime Minister’s XI match, a feature of every tour of Australia, was specifically arranged as a pink ball match in the run up to Brisbane England arrogantly refused to have anyone from the main squad play in that game. Several of the England XI who arrived in Brisbane had never played even a first class match using a pink ball. Matthew Potts had bowled well in the Prime Minister’s XI match, but when he next featured, in the final match at Sydney he had done no further bowling in match conditions, and he bowled very poorly, and frankly deserved his first innings figures (25-1-141-0). He was not called on in the second innings. England need to get their heads out of the sand on this one and acknowledge that they need to play more proper matches.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Just About Hanging On

A look at day four at the SCG, a link and a photo gallery.

This post deals with day four of the final test match of the Ashes series, at the SCG.

A NEW TALENT ANNOUNCES ITSELF

Play resumed on day four with Australia 518-7, already 134 runs ahead of England on first innings. The last three Australian wickets boosted that total to 567, an overall lead of 183. England were further handicapped as they prepared for their second innings by a muscle strain suffered by Ben Stokes. Ben Duckett contributed 42, his highest score of the series. There was also a score of 42 from Harry Brook. Will Jacks, who as I have said elsewhere is actually more batter than bowler failed horrifically to take advantage of a promotion to number six, Stokes having decided to bat later in the order, playing a horrible shot to his second ball to give Cameron Green a catch off the bowling of Beau Webster. First to go had been Zak Crawley, LBW to Starc for 1. That meant that Jacob Bethell, batting at number three in spite of never having scored a first class hundred had to come in right at the start of the innings. He rose to the challenge brilliantly, playing a proper test match innings, showing skill, technique and the right temperament for the job in hand. It was during the stand with Brook that he reached that maiden first class century (while it is not commonplace for this to happen in a test match it is not super rare either – Charles Bannerman’s 165 in the first ever test match was his maiden FC century, and there is another member of the current England setup to have done the same thing, Gus Atkinson). Even after Brook’s dismissal and the Jacks howler referred to earlier he went on unperturbed, finding some support from Jamie Smith. Brydon Carse helped the eighth wicket to advance the score by 30, and at the end Matthew Potts was supporting Bethell, who ended the day unbeaten on 142, having faced 232 balls and hit 15 fours, with England 302-8, 119 to the good. Bethell’s innings was England’s third three figure score of the series, and both the previous two were scored by Joe Root, a universally acknowledged master of test match batting technique. I am not yet fully prepared to renounce my scepticism regarding Bethell’s selection, but I see no reason for this century not to be the first of many, and if he continues to deliver the goods as he did this day I will acknowledge that fact.

PHOTOGRAPHS

First I have a link to share, from science.org, to this article about how multi-cellular life may have come about. It is an appropriate share since my gallery includes pictures from all three of the multi-cellular or eukaryotic kingdoms. Now for my usual sign off…

Australia Take Control in Sydney

A look back at days two and three at the SCG and a photo gallery.

Before I get into the main meat of this post, the events of days two and three in the fifth Ashes test in Sydney I have some important news from today. On Christmas morning my computer started failing to recognize the existence of WIFI networks, and today I was finally able to take it to a friend in Fakenham who is a professional fixer of computers, and it is once again fully functioning.

AN ENGLAND INNINGS WITH A FAMILIAR PATTERN

England resumed on the second day on 211-3. For much of that second day things looked to be continuing to go their way. Although Jamie Smith suffered the daftest dismissal of the series (even in this series, where that particular field is highly contested it stood out like a sore thumb) just before lunch, slapping a long hop from part timer Marnus Labuschagne straight into deep extra cover’s hands most of the rest of the news for England was good. At 375-6 a very big total looked on, but the last four wickets tumbled for a mere nine further runs. It was still England’s best first innings effort of the series, and what made the whole pattern of this innings so familiar was that it was undergirded by a huge score from Joseph Edward Root. Root’s 160 was his second hundred of the series, and the 41st of his test career.

POOR BOWLING FROM ENGLAND

Having batted reasonably well England proceeded to bowl like drains. By the end of day two Australia were 166-2, with Travis Head in sight of his third century of the series. Matthew Potts, playing his first match since the game in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI, and his first first class match since the end of the English season was especially poor, conceding runs rapidly and not looking threatening.

ONE WAY TRAFFIC ON DAY THREE

Travis Head powered on to 163 in the early part of the day. By the close a much more experienced cricketer, Steve Smith, had also cruised past three figures, and Beau Webster, batting at number nine through a combination of a batter heavy original selection and the use of a night watcher the previous evening, supported him impressively in the closing stages, against a tiring bowling unit. Australia closed on 518-7, already 134 to the good, having scored 352-5 on the day. Potts had 0-141 from 25 overs, Carse had claimed three wickets but had also been very expensive. Tongue and Stokes each went at about three an over, and even part time spinners Jacks and Bethell were far less expensive than the two Durham bowlers who had shared the new ball. At their high water mark of 375-6 on the second afternoon England looked well placed, a day and a half later they have every appearance of being deep in a Kimberley diamond mine sized hole.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Ice on the surface of a frozen pond (lest the blue skies and evidence of sunshine fool you regarding the weather this January in England).

Day 1 in Sydney

A look back at the opening day of the final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes at the SCG and a photo gallery.

Late last night UK time the fifth and final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes series got underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This post looks back at the day.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Gus Atkinson was unavailable for England due to injury, and Matthew Potts was named as his replacement. This was England’s only change from the side that had won the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne, which meant that Shoaib Bashir, fast tracked into the England ranks due to the fact that his height would enable him to generate extra bounce, an asset that should make itself especially felt on Australian surfaces, would end up not playing a match in the entire series. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FRUSTRATING

The bad element of the day came first, with England losing three wickets, Duckett (who has had a wretched series) for 27, Crawley for 16 and Bethell for 10. That was 57-3. and brought the two Yorkshiremen, Joe Root and Harry Brook together. This pair proceeded to bat beautifully until just before tea when it rained, sending the players in. In the event there was no further cricket in the day, though the commentators were absolutely adamant that there could and therefore should have been – it was dry for most of the evening session. Possibly, with most matches so far this series having not gone the distance, and two having finished in two days each the home side wanted as many days play as possible in Sydney and the local ground staff did not exactly bust a gut to get play back underway. The score at the end of a truncated day was 211-3, Brook 78 not out, Root 72 not out, and a wicket a piece for Starc, Neser and Boland.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Not a common sight for a town centre location – a pheasant outside St Nicholas Chapel

Renegades Blown Away by Hurricanes

A look back at todays BBL game between Melbourne Renegades and Hobart Hurricanes and a photo gallery.

This morning UK time saw Melbourne Renegades entertain Hobart Hurricanes at Geelong. This post looks back at the match.

THE RENEGADES INNINGS

The match started strangely, with Josh Brown allowing Chris Jordan to bowl a maiden in the first over of the match. Maidens are rare birds in T20s, and I cannot recall a previous example of a match in this format starting with such an over. Tim Seifert got a single early in the second over, but off the fourth ball thereof Brown fell to a catch by Nikhil Chaudhary off Riley Meredith for an eight ball duck, an absurd innings in a T20. The third and fourth overs, bowled by Nathan Ellis and then Meredith bowling his second were taken for 17 runs each, and a Power Play score of 36-1 looked respectable. However, Hurricanes immediately tightened things up. In the ninth over Jordan bowled Seifert for 34 to make it 63-2. With the penultimate ball of the 10th over English leg spinner Rehan Ahmed bowled Mohammad Rizwan for 32, which brought about the mid-innings drinks break at 69-3. Two overs later Jake Fraser-McGurk and Ollie Peake were still together, and there was an obvious case for activating the Power Surge. However Renegades did the cowardly thing and held back in the hope of getting a better opportunity. Five balls into the 13th over Peake was well caught by Matthew Wade off Nathan Ellis to make it 86-4, and a chance to use the Surge with two batters who have both already faced a few balls had been squandered. Three balls into the 14th over and Hurricanes other leg spinner, Bangladeshi Rishad Hossain, bowled Fraser-McGurk to make it 88-5. Hassan Khan and Will Sutherland revived things for Renegades, and they eventually activated the Surge for overs 17 and 18. The first of these overs was beneficial to their cause, but the second, bowled by Jordan, was ruinous. Hassan Khan was out to the first ball of it, and Sutherland to the fourth, to make it 126-7. Jordan conceded one more run in the over, but still at that point had 3-9 from three overs. The last ball of the 19th over saw Gurinder Sandhu fall to a catch by Hossain off Ellis to make it 133-8. The final over was Jordan’s fourth and last as well, and with the second ball of it he accounted for Fergus O’Neill to make it 135-9. Jordan did not manage to complete his five-for, and ten runs accrued from the last four balls of the innings. However, 145-9 still looked a hopelessly inadequate score, and 4-1-19-4 was still an excellent set of bowling figures. Jordan has played over 400 T20s in his long career, and has never yet taken a five-for, though todays figures were not quite a career best – he has recorded 4-6 in the past. Rishad Hossain had 1-21 from his four overs and Rehan Ahmed 1-25 from his. If Stokes is still worried about Bashir’s lack of skill with the bat (see here) then perhaps Ahmed, a genuinely front line bowler could come into the side. It would be far from the first time that an English player in Australia not as part of a tour party has been drafted in in an emergency – George Gunn, in Australia for health reasons, was called in to the 1907-8 touring party and proceeded to top score in both innings on test debut, while in the 1990s Gus Fraser, omitted by Illingworth, was clever enough to arrange to be in Australia playing grade cricket, and soon found himself back in the side.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Mitchell Owen fell to the first ball of the chase, caught behind by Rizwan off Jason Behrendorff. However Nikhil Chaudhary, recently demoted from opening to number three, then hit the second, third and fourth balls of that opening over for fours and Hurricanes were on their way, and never really looked back. The other opener, Tim Ward, was also dismissed in the Power Play, for 8, but Hurricanes already had 38 on the board by then. It was the third wicket stand between Chaudhury and Ben McDermott that killed the game stone dead. At the halfway mark Hurricanes were 95-2, with these two still together, and activating the Power Surge at the earliest possible opportunity was a blatantly obvious thing to do, and Hurricanes duly did so. Although they lost Chaudhury to the last ball of the Surge, caught by Fraser-McGurk off Sandhu for 79 (38) the two overs had also yielded 36 runs (18 each), and a mere 15 were needed for victory by then. It took 1.5 overs to knock those runs off, with no further wickets falling. McDermott ended on 49 not out (33). Hurricanes had won by seven wickets with 6.1 overs to spare and went top of the table. Jordan was named Player of the Match for his great bowling. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Fightback Comes Too Late

A look back at the final stages of the test match in Adelaide, some suggestions for Melbourne and a photo gallery.

Early this morning UK time England lost the test match in Adelaide by 82 runs and with it both The Ashes and the series. Australia are now 3-0 up with two matches left to play.

DAY FOUR

England had their best period of the test match when they took the last six Australian wickets for 38 runs. Unfortunately that still left them needing 435 to win, more than has ever been successfully chased in a test match before. By the close they had lost six of their second wickets and such hope as they still retained rested with Jamie Smith and Will Jacks.

DAY FIVE

Jamie Smith made 60, but his dismissal was a poor one. Jacks found further support from Brydon Carse, as England extended the match into the afternoon session of the final day. Jacks was eventually dismissed for 47 having held out for almost three hours. This was a particularly impressive effort since he is by nature a stroke maker but put that aside in the interests of the team. Thereafter the end was not long delayed.

LOOKING AHEAD TO MELBOURNE

There is no way Ollie Pope can retain his place for the fourth test match in Melbourne. It is also clear that England need a spinner, not a batter cosplaying as a front line spinner (I do not blame Jacks for the embarrassing results of this bowling figures wise, I blame England for trying to have him play a role he does not play even in domestic cricket). Jacks bats high in the order for Surrey, and with England having a vacancy at number three there is an obvious solution there – Jacks moves up and plays as the batter he is, Pope goes out, Bashir comes in. Also for Melbourne I want Matthew Potts in for Brydon Carse, who did get some wickets here but also bowled a lot of dross. While the series is over there is a huge difference between 5-0 and 4-1 or 3-2, and England should be looking to restore some pride in these final matches. In 1950-1 Freddie Brown’s side had a horror time for much of their tour, with a lot of ill luck along the way, but they never lost heart, and in the final test match they saved some face with a victory, England’s first over Australia since before WWII, and in England in 1953 Len Hutton’s England regained The Ashes, which had been in Aussie hands for almost 19 years at the time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Australia Well on Top in Adelaide

A look back at days two and three of the test match in Brisbane, some comments regarding the makeup of the England side, and a photo gallery.

This post looks back at days two and three of the test match in Adelaide that is currently in progress.

DAY 2

England took far too long to dispose of the last two Australian wickets, allowing them to boost the total to 371. Australia then did what England had signally failed to do: bowl properly. The best one can say about England’s efforts in the face of a very good bowling performance from Australia is that at least on this occasion they were in general got out rather than giving their wickets away. The chief exception was Ollie Pope, whose shot against Nathan Lyon was gruesomeness personified. The bowler, returning after missing Brisbane, an omission about which he was in his own words “filthy” could not be sure how things would go for him. Pope hit the veteran off spinner’s very first ball straight to midwicket to depart for 3. That brought Lyon level with McGrath on 563 scalps, and a few moments later he was alone as Australia’s second most prolific test wicket taker ever behind Warne when he bowled Ben Duckett. Brook batted with greater responsibility than he had shown in the first two matches (it would have been hard for him to show less) to accrue 45, at a still reasonable speed. Stoked dug in for the long haul, and before the close of this day, Archer, a five-for already to his name found himself in action with the bat. England ended on 213-8, 158 adrift.

DAY THREE

England began well, staging a significant batting revival of their own, with Archer clocking up a maiden test 50 and Stokes battling on to 83. They managed 286, a deficit of 85. Sadly that was the last good news for England. The rest of the day was dominated by Travis Head, scoring his second ton of the series (England have one such score between them, from Root in Brisbane, for this series). Australia soon realized that other than Archer the England bowling contained zero threat. Will Jacks, again used as a stock spinner, ended the day with 1-107 from 19 overs (for comparison Lyon, a genuine bowler, had 2-70 from 28 overs in England’s innings, which is what proper stock bowling looks like). This is not an attack on Jacks, a fine cricketer but not, repeat not, a front line spinner. He is a good batter and an occasional bowler, and England sticking him in at number eight as a supposed front line bowler was a poor call – and it is England against whom my ire is directed. In the first innings Jacks had 2-105 from 20 overs. The last bowler to concede 100 or more in each innings of an Ashes match before this was Shane Warne, in a game in which he captured 12 wickets, and the last English bowler to do so was Ian Botham at The Oval in 1981, when he took 11 wickets. Jacks at the moment has 3-212 for the match. Usman Khawaja scored 40, but Head’s best support came from Alex Carey who followed his first century by reaching 52 not out. Australia were 271-4 at the close, 356 ahead, with Head 142 not out.

LOOKING AHEAD

After the close of play England’s spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel acted as spokesperson for the team. In a moment that brought to mind (at least to my mind) the ‘many worlds‘ view espoused by certain cosmologists Patel told those listening that Jacks had not bowled badly today. There may indeed be an alternate universe in which Jacks did not bowl badly (possibly even one in which he actually bowled well), but in the universe in which this match was played and in which I was listening his 1-107 from 19 overs was not an unfair reflection on his bowling. It is not Jacks’ fault – he was put in to a job that he does not do even at domestic level, which is the fault of those making that call, but Jeetan Patel did himself no favours by producing such a blatant porky. Unless miracles happen on days four and five England will move on to the Boxing Day test having already surrendered both Ashes and series. Two players who cannot be allowed to keep their places based on the evidence so far available are Pope and Carse. I would replace Carse with Matt Potts, a crafty fast-medium in place of a brainless pacer. As for Pope I would use the necessity of dropping him to change the balance of the side, by bringing in Bashir. The number three slot could go either to Jacks, a top order batter for Surrey, or Stokes could move up and take on that crucial position himself. To win a test match in general you need to take 20 wickets. At Perth and Brisbane England managed 12 wickets each time. They have taken 14 so far here, but the only way they will make it to all 20 is if Australia decide that there is so much time left in the match they need not bother to declare.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An unusual £2 coin I got in change recently. Given who it is commemorating the skull is obviously that of Yorick.

An Even First Day

A look back at day one of the third Ashes test in Adelaide and a photo gallery.

The third test match of the ongoing series between Australia and England’s men’s teams got underway overnight UK time. This post looks back at a curious day’s play.

THE PRELIMINARIES

England had announced their team early, in keeping with their recent methods in this department. The fact that Shoaib Bashir missed out for a third straight match, creating the possibility that series will be decided before he plays a game, raised eyebrows. The problem with this selection from England is that they fast tracked him into the test side with this specific series most in mind, which makes then sidelining him for each of the first three matches look bizarre. Australia had intended to drop Usman Khawaja, which could well have ended his test career, but then Steve Smith experienced giddiness and nausea while batting in the nets and it was deemed serious enough to put him out of the match, so Khawaja was back in the side. Australia won the toss, and there was never much doubt about the decision, so it was over to England’s bowlers to see what they could do.

A CURATE’S EGG PERFORMANCE

England did not bowl very well overall, but they had some assistance from the Australian batting, who seemed somewhat infected by their opponents freneticism at the crease. Immediately after lunch, when Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green suffered almost identical ultra-soft dismissals in the space of three balls, each hitting deliveries from Archer straight to midwicket and suddenly the score was 94-4 it looked very good for England. Khawaja and Alex Carey regained the initiative for Australia, but then Khawaja tried to go big against the part time spin of WG Jacks and succeeded in holing out Josh Tongue for 82. Carey, supported in turn by Josh Inglis, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc proceeded to a splendid maiden Ashes ton. However Jacks showed something of the original WG’s knack for inducing batters to get themselves out, drawing an injudicious shot from Carey which resulted in a catch to Jamie Smith. The day ended with Australia on 326-8. With temperatures in Adelaide forecast to reach 39 degrees on day two (two degrees above the cut off point for an abandonment during my brief career as an umpire in Under 14s Whites matches there) what happens then will have a big influence on the outcome of the match and thus whether England can get back into the series. If they can get the last two wickets quickly and then bat for the rest of the day, forcing Australia to labour in the field through the fiercest heat they will have a good chance. Cummins has just returned earlier than expected from an injury, and a long, hot innings in the field would be a big early test of just how ready he was to make that comeback. A concern for England, given their controversial decision to overlook the specialist spinner is the fact that it was Will Jacks, definitely a batter who bowls off spin, who ended bowling the most overs for them on day one.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The first five images are of a gold ducat that has been manipulated in some way – the 1583 date, clearly visible, does not match with the style of portrait. These images did their job, and the coin has been sold for a negotiated price not hugely much less than the original sale price.

Renegades Rampant

An account of todays match in the men’s Big Bash League, a pungent comment re England’s chosen XI for Adelaide tomorrow and a photo gallery.

The Women’s Big Bash League 11th edition finished on Saturday, and the 15th edition of the men’s tournament started yesterday. Today Melbourne Renegades faced Brisbane Heat in a night match in Geelong. This post looks back at that match.

RENEGADES RUNFEST

Things initially did not look overly bright for Renegades, with only Tim Seifert of the early batters looking good. Josh Brown managed 15 (13), which looked positively explosive compared to number three Mohammad Rizwan’s 3 (10). Jake Fraser-McGurk had just started to look like he might provide Seifert some decent support when he suffered a stupid dismissal, walking across his stumps against seamer Jack Wildermuth, missing and being bowled. This attempt to open up the leg side was particularly ill-judged given that Heat had stocked that side with plenty of fielders. Oliver Peake, 19 years old, came in at number five, and batted magnificently. He and Seifert put on 121 together in precisely nine overs (9.3 to 18.3) of the innings, Seifert reaching three figures. Wildermuth got them both in the space of three balls, 203-3 becoming 204-5. Shaheen Shah Afridi had a nightmare with the ball, which ended in bizarre fashion, when he was ordered away from the bowling crease after producing two dangerously high full tosses in a single over, the 18th over of the innings. His figures when his spell was compulsorily halted were 2.4.-0-43-0. Nathan McSweeney completed that 18th over. The 20th over was bowled by Xavier Bartlett, and in the circumstances he did well to only concede a further eight.

THE HEAT RESPONSE

At no stage were Heat close to being up with the rate, and as can happen in such circumstances that required rate climbed alarmingly in the second half of their innings. Only a late flourish between youngster Hugh Weibgen and veteran Jimmy Peirson, which produced 78 runs from 5.5 overs enabled them to keep the margin respectable. There was time in the dying embers of the game for Afridi to add a duck with the bat to his disaster class with the ball. Afridi’s dismissal, clean bowled by Gurinder Singh Sandhu, left Heat needing 17 from one ball, and they managed two off that final ball. Melbourne Renegades had won by 14 runs. Their best bowler on the day was Will Sutherland who took 3-33 from his four overs, while Jason Behrendorff had 2-34 from his four and Sandhu 2-35 from his four.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Tomorrow night UK time the third match of the Ashes series gets underway in Adelaide. England have confirmed their playing XI, with the only change from Brisbane being Tongue coming in for Atkinson. That means that Shoaib Bashir, fast tracked into the England team and kept there in spite of some less than convincing returns at test level with this specific series in mind may end up not participating until it has already been lost. However England’s actual selections work out they have made themselves look fools over Bashir. Now for my usual sign off…

These last few photos are of a massive fly past of migrating birds. There is virtually no overlap between the birds being photographed here. The pictures were taken on Columbia Way at about 3:30PM, as I returned from my post-lunch walk.

How WBBL11 Was Won

A look back at today’s WBBL11 final, between Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes, and a photo gallery.

This morning (UK time) saw the final of the Women’s Big Bash League 11th edition. The contending sides were Hobart Hurricanes, who had won the league stage and thus gone straight into the final and Perth Scorchers who had had to win two extra matches in order to get there. The other benefit besides going straight through to the final that the Hurricanes got was that the match was played in Hobart.

THE PRELIMINARIES

The bat flip was won by Perth Scorchers. Sophie Devine chose to bat first, believing that runs on the board would give her side the opportunity to impose scoreboard pressure on the opposition. Both sides were unchanged from their previous matches (in Hurricanes’ case quite a while back, and it was one that was only half finished in bizarre circumstances – in the break between innings a ball got rolled into the pitch surface creating a dangerously large hole therein and resulting in an abandonment).

THE SCORCHERS INNINGS

Katie Mack and Beth Mooney have been a formidable opening pair for the Scorchers this season, but neither were at their best today. Mack in particular struggled to get going, and Mooney did so only because she was reprieved multiple times. Finally in the sixth a cover a catch did go to hand, Linsey Smith pouching one off Lauren Smith to send Mack back for 17 and make it 36-1. Maddy Darke, in at number three for the Scorchers never got going at all, and it was Linsey Smith as bowler who got her, with the aid of a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt, to make it 48-2 in the eighth over. The innings was just into its second half when Heather Graham rattled Mooney’s stumps, getting the left hander for 33 and making it 64-3. Freya Kemp hit a six, but then gave Sciver-Brunt a catch off Linsey Smith to go for 10 and make it 79-4 in the 13th over. Paige Scholfield batted well, but the last serious hope of a big Scorchers total disappeared when Lizelle Lee stumped Devine off Graham to make it 112-5 in the 17th over. Scholfield and Alana King stayed together for the rest of the innings. The most remarkable happening was Nicola Carey contriving to concede just three runs in the final over of the innings, two of them off the final ball. Carey had figures overall of 4-0-23-0, and two of those overs were in the opening Power Play, and another was that 20th over. The final score was 137-5, which did not look like enough, although if Hurricanes had taken all the chances they were offered Scorchers would probably have been all out for about 90.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Lizelle Lee struck form from the outset. The four over opening Power Play yielded 39-0. In the sixth over Amy Edgar clean bowled Danni Wyatt-Hodge for 16 to make it 49-1. That brought Sciver-Brunt in to join Lee, and the pair made hay. At the halfway stage the score was 81-1. Hurricanes activated the Power Surge at the first permitted opportunity, namely for overs 11 and 12, quite rightly going for the quick kill (and even without that motivation, would they ever have a better time to take it than with Lizelle Lee and Natalie Sciver-Brunt both well set?) rather than waiting on further developments. Lee hit the fourth ball of the 11th over for a six, the third such blow of her innings, to pass 50 off 32 balls, and followed up by hitting four more off the fifth and another half dozen off the sixth. Sciver-Brunt joined the party by putting the first ball of the 12th over into the stands. In total the two overs of Power Surge produced 31-0, , and Hurricanes were 112-1 after 12 overs, needing a mere 26 off the last eight. Sciver-Brunt fell with victory in sight, but Lee went to a new record score for a WBBL final of 77 not out (44 balls, 10 fours, four sixes), while Nicola Carey made the winning hit, a four off the final ball of the 15th over. The margin was eight wickets, with five overs to spare. Lizelle Lee after that stunning blitz with the bat was named Player of the Match. This means that the Hurricanes currently hold both the men’s and women’s BBL titles, and that the only franchise never to have won a WBBL title is now the Melbourne Stars.

ON POWER SURGES

The Power Surge can be activated at any stage in the last ten overs of an innings. In this match it was one of many areas in which Hurricanes were superb. Scorchers by contrast took their surge for overs 15 and 16, and amassed 15-0 from those two overs, little if any better than they would have done in regular play. It is that last point, that the key is not just how many runs those overs yield, but how many more they yield than would have been scored anyway that informs my thinking on this subject. Taking it for overs 15 and 16 as Scorchers did today makes some sort of sense, effectively extending ‘the death’ from four overs to six. Leaving it any later would to me rank as folly. The Hurricanes had an easy choice today, as they had two well set batters both ideally suited to making use of a Power Surge when they took it. In general I think sides, influenced by the worry that taking it can lead to the loss of wickets are overcautious about doing so and tend it leave it later than they should.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	Thomas on England Just About Hanging…
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on England Just About Hanging…
	A Cornish Christmas… on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	Karan on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	GP on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…