Tag: dragonflies

The Women’s T20 World Cup

A look at the Women’s T20 World Cup, now underway in the United Arab Emirates, and a photo gallery.

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is underway. It was due to be staged in Bangladesh but was then moved at the last minute to the United Arab Emirates, although Bangladesh are still officially tournament hosts. In this post I look at what has happened so far in the matches I have been able to follow.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE TOURNAMENT

Australia, winners of six of the previous eight editions of this tournament, are as expected looking formidable once more. The extraordinary number of genuine all rounders they have in their squad (including the two recognized wicket keepers, who opened the batting together – Healy getting the gloves, Mooney playing as a pure batter – they had no fewer than six such players in their XI – Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath and Annabel Sutherland, all in the top seven of the batting order, and all well capable of bowling their full four overs, are the others) means that rather than struggling to cover all bases they have a positive embarrassment of riches. Effectively they were taking to the field with a team of about 15 – seven front line batters including the keeper, and eight front line bowlers – the four all rounders listed and four players chosen specifically on ground of their bowling skills.

England were fairly impressive in disposing of ‘hosts’ Bangladesh – their 118-7 from their 20 overs is the highest team total thus far recorded at Sharjah, where the pitches have been low and slow, and runs have been at a massive premium, and was enough for them to win by 26 runs. To give you an idea of the nature of the Sharjah surface, England picked four specialist spinners – Linsey Smith, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn, and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s four overs of medium pace were the only overs by anyone other than those four for them. Further commentary on this is provided by Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s innings – the recently married (hence new, hyphenated surname) opener scored 41, but even she, normally exceptionally quick scoring, was barely striking at 100.

India suffered a humiliation against New Zealand in their opening match, going down by 58 runs. They were sloppy in the field (though far from the only offenders in this regard – a shedload of catches have gone down this tournament), with at least two very easy catches going down and a good 20 runs being conceded through poor ground fielding, and very poor with the bat. They were better today against Pakistan, but again there were lapses in the field, and they were overcautious with the bat, eventually getting home with only seven balls to spare, doing little to reduce the massive negative net run rate the NZ game left them with. This is important because they also have Australia in the group which almost certainly means that the other sides are fighting over one semi-final slot. Sri Lanka have yet to grow out of their dependence on Chamari Athapaththu – once the batting all rounder fell cheaply in their opening fixture they never looked like making a contest of it. South Africa were impressive – left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba took four cheap wickets for them, and their opening pair of skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits knocked the target off without being parted, each topping 50 in the process.

Dubai has been a better venue for cricket than Sharjah, which I am not convinced is still up to international standard, but even there the 160 that New Zealand posted against India is a massive outlier – 120 would still be respectable there, and 130 would be make the side scoring it favourites to win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I am not sure of the correct way to dispose of an unneeded mobility scooter, but dumping it in the river (in this case The Gaywood near Kettlewell Lane) is definitely not it.

Three Days of Auctions

A look back at an auction week at James and Sons and a photo gallery.

This week James and Sons had auctions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This post looks back at those days.

MONDAY – TOYS

The Monday auction was the smallest of three, just 150 lots going under the hammer. It was very successful. The fun started as early as lot 4, some Scalextric stuff which was expected to fetch 50-60 and ended up going £170!

Lot 9 went very cheaply to me.

Lot 43 might also have been of interest to me, being four model London Underground 1959 tube stock carriages, had it not been going way beyond my means. It was estimated at 25-35, but actually went for an eye popping £130!

These trains were still in service into the 1990s by the way.

There were other notable successes, but I will settle for highlighting just one further lot, number 96, which had a modest estimate of 15-20 and ended up going for £48!

TUESDAY

Tuesday was a work day for me, so I did not get to see what happened in that day’s auction, though there was some interesting stuff going under the hammer. Lot 667 went to me (I placed a bid online, and it was knocked down to me). While the auction was going on I was one floor up, using the scanner rather than my usual camera to image football programmes and team sheets which will be going under the hammer near the end of September.

WEDNESDAY – STAMPS

The stamp sale featured more lots than either Monday or Tuesday had, but was also quieter than either day. A Tanzanian railway stamp went to me cheaply, while the only notable success was lot 1430, which I did not image. Here is my stamp:

In its new display location, alongside a Djibouti banknote
Two close ups of the locomotive
Focus on the text

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Dominant

A look at developments in the England v Sri Lanka test match at Lord’s to date.

Yesterday morning a test match got underway at Lord’s between the England and Sri Lanka men’s teams. This post looks at the developments so far (and there have been plenty).

DAY ONE

Yesterday being a work day I missed most of the action. Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and put England in to bat under cloudless skies and on a pitch that looked flat. At first he looked like getting away with it, assisted by England’s front line batters. Lawrence and Pope’s innings were both over before they had really begun, Duckett scored 40 before playing a loose stroke, and Brook and Smith both also played poor shots. When Smith fell it was 192-5, and 24 runs later Woakes was also out. Root however had been playing beautifully, equalling Alastair Cook’s England record of 33 test centuries. Gus Atkinson now joined him and played brilliantly. The seventh wicket stand was still in progress when I was finally able to tune in, and it kept going merrily on for a while after. Root finally gout, essaying a reverse scoop, for 143 to make it 308-7. Potts and Atkinson continued to bat well, Atkinson reaching a 50 at virtually a run a ball. By the close the stand was worth 50 and England were 358-7, Atkinson 74*, Potts 20*.

DAY TWO

Initially the question was whether Atkinson could score the 26 he needed to complete a century and claim his place on all three Lord’s honours boards (in his debut match, against the West Indies, he had accounted for both the five-wicket innings haul and the ten-wicket match haul). He was on 82 when Australian umpire Paul Reiffel upheld an LBW appeal against him. he reviewed it instantly, and the replay showed it going well down the leg side. That was the only alarm along the way. Soon he was on 95*, and two successive boundaries then saw him to three figures, his maiden FC ton (his previous best was 91 in a Surrey v Lancashire development XI game in 2022) as well as his maiden test ton. He had got there at precisely a run a ball – 103 balls* off 103 balls with 11 fours and four sixes. There was no slogging involved – this was a proper innings, and when it began England had been in some trouble. Potts was eighth out, but Olly Stone, playing his first test match in three years after a horror run of injuries kept Atkinson company and showed that he is far from being a rabbit with the bat. Atkinson was finally out caught behind off Asitha Fernando for 118 to make it 420-9. England were all out for 427, Asitha Fernando 5-102.

Sri Lanka started better than in either innings at Manchester, but when the wickets started to fall they fell in clumps. Both openers played balls into their own stumps, Pathum Nissanka at number three played a really poor shot, straight to Matthew Potts who had been placed there for it, off the bowling of Stone. Mathews and Chandimal each got into the 20s, but then came another clatter of wickets, Mathews being absolutely done by Potts to be clean bowled for 22, Dhanjanaya de Silva going a few balls later for a duck, edging Potts to Brook, and then Chandimal suffered the worst dismissal of the match to date (even in a field as well contested as this it was a definite winner) when he hit a ball from Atkinson straight to Dan Lawrence moments after Pope had placed him there precisely for that shot and that was 87-6. Sri Lanka have recovered somewhat from that nadir. Kamindu Mendis and Milan Rathnayake took the score to 118 before Rathnayake was caught behind off Woakes, and Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya are still in residence together having taken the score on to 152-7, but they are still in absolutely dire straights, being 275 adrift. Woakes, Stone and Potts each have two wickets, and Atkinson received that gift wicket from Chandimal. While I have been preparing this for publication Bashir has produced an absolute jaffa to bowl his fellow spinner Prabath Jayasuriya to make it 153-8.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy Action

A look at the action from Southern Vipers and the Blaze in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy and a photo gallery,

This August bank holiday the only professional cricket action is in the women’s game, with four Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy matches (the RHFT is the women’s 50 overs per side domestic competition in England – the longest format most of them get to play on any sort of regular basis). There is live radio coverage of the match at Arundel (in West Sussex but for centuries owned by the dukes of Norfolk) between Southern Vipers and The Blaze (the latter are midlands based) and I have thus been following that game.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

For some unfathomable reason radio coverage of the match was due to start at 10:38AM, eight minutes after play itself started. Technical issues then intervened meaning that it was a further ten minutes, and thus 18 minutes (and five overs – the women are not slow getting through the overs) after the scheduled start that coverage was actually available.

BLAZE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAT

Vipers had won the toss and chosen to bowl first. With the notable exception of Marie Kelly (40 off 37 balls) Blaze struggled with the bat all the way through their innings. Lucy Higham tried to marshal the lower order, scoring 29. Vipers’ two off spinners, Ava Lee (4-51 on her 19th birthday) and Georgia Adams (2-32 from 8.5 overs) were the best of the bowlers, a fact that Higham, whose bowling stock in trade is off spin will surely have noted.

THE VIPERS REPLY SO FAR

Ella McCaughan and Rhianna Southby opened for the Vipers, McCaughan being their regular opener, while Southby is the sixth opening partner they have tried alongside her (shades of finding a partner for Alastair Cook in the England’s men’s side after the retirement of Strauss).

Vipers made it to 33 before Irish star (recent player of the series for them against Sri Lanka) Orla Prendergast, who had fared badly with the bat, trapped McCaughan LBW for 9. Vipers have just past 50, in the 13th over, but significantly Prendergast has also just struck for a second time, removing Adams with the aid of a catch by Josie Groves. This is looking like a decent contest. While I have been preparing this for publication Vipers have moved on to 72-2 after 16 overs. Southby is 30*.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid gallery for you…

Until I saw this (four pics) I was wondering which dragon/ damselfly would be the feature image.

The England XI For The First Test Against Sri Lanka

A quick look at the England XI for the first test against Sri Lanka, which starts on Wednesday and a huge photo gallery.

The second part of the England men’s test summer gets underway on Wednesday at Old Trafford, against Sri Lanka. The England XI for that game has just been announced and this post looks at the selections.

THE XI

Here, courtesy of cricinfo is the XI:

COMMENTS ON THE XI

There are no absolute bolts from the blue here, which is a good thing. With Crawley and Stokes injured there had to be at least two changes. Having opted for Lawrence, although he has never done the job in red ball cricket before playing him as an opener was the least disruptive thing that England could have done in the circumstances. Some might notice that there is less batting depth than against the West indies, but I personally applaud the selections of Smith at six (he bats at number four for Surrey, so this no real gamble) and Woakes at seven, which gives the side five front line bowlers. With Potts, Woakes and Bashir there the two gun speedsters, Wood and Atkinson, can be used in short spells as would be preferable. Potts has a first class century to his name, and Atkinson can also handle a bat. Additionally, the Sri Lankan bowling attack is not exactly fearsome, and to win test matches one generally has to take 20 wickets, so again with Stokes’ absence forcing a decision between being light on bowling or somewhat lacking in batting depth it was better to go for the former. Although he would not have been my first choice pick for the role at the start of the season I am pleased to see Shoaib Bashir being given an extended run as first choice spinner – as someone who first started following England in the second half of the 1980s and witnessed the whole of the 1990s in their (in)glory I have developed a major dislike of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ selections.

I think the selectors have done the best job possible in difficult circumstances, and I expect this side to fare well against Sri Lanka.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Fire Qualify

A look back at the early match in the Hundred (women’s) – Southern Brave v Welsh Fire. Also a large photo gallery – a few from yesterday, the rest from this morning before the cricket started.

Today is a ‘double double header’ day in The Hundred. In the early game Welsh Fire travelled to Southampton to take on Southern Brave. Brave were bottom of the table, with little to play for. Fire could guarantee qualification with a win and a big win would give them a major chance of qualifying directly for the final by finishing top (second and third place play off in a so-called ‘eliminator’ for the right to join them).

THE BRAVE INNINGS

Fire won the toss and decided to bowl. Brave have fared terribly with the bat all through this competition, and this one was no different. Wickets crashed from the start, and it looked like being a very short match indeed when Brave were 47-7. However Chloe Tryon was still there, and finally found some support, from wicket keeper Rhianna Southby. The eighth wicket partnership yielded 52, and Tryon completed a fine 50. However, once the big stand was broken the rest of the innings was quickly wrapped up, and Brave had only 103 to defend. Hayley Matthews with 4-14 was the pick of the bowlers, with Jess Jonassen 3-21, Freya Davies 2-14 and Shabnim Ismail 1-16 all also picking up wickets.

THE FIRE CHASE

Tammy Beaumont soon showed that there was little wrong with the pitch, finding her best form right from the start. With 34 on the board Sophia Dunkley fell to a fine catch by Danni Wyatt off Lauren Bell for 7. That proved to be Brave’s only bowling success, as Hayley Matthews followed her superb bowling with a fine innings. Beaumont passed 50 off 31 ball, bringing up the landmark with her ninth four. It fell to Matthews to make the winning hit, with 26 balls to spare as well as nine wickets. Matthews’ all round contribution quite rightly secured her player of the match. For the record Oval Invincibles are currently in a very strong position against Trent Rockets and may even win by a big enough margin to leapfrog Fire on net RR. Full scorecard of the early game here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Game of Two Halves for Bryce

An account of yesterday’s match between Manchester Originals and Northern Superchargers yesterday and a photo gallery.

Yesterday’s second match in the Hundred ‘double double header’ was Manchester Originals against Northern Superchargers. In the Women’s match the Originals were already out of the tournament, but wanted to go down with guns blazing.

THE ORIGINALS INNINGS

The Originals won the toss and decided to bat. Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney gave the innings a fine start, scoring 60 together before Wolvaardt was out to the 47th ball of the innings for 26 (21). Mooney went on to play a truly magnificent knock, and her second wicket partner was Kathryn Bryce. They added 67 together in 43 balls, of which Bryce’s share was 13 (21). With ten balls to go in the innings Originals skipper Sophie Ecclestone instructed Bryce to retire and went out to bat herself in the hope of giving the total a final boost. Ecclestone faced five of the last ten balls and scored 6 runs. Mooney was closing on three figures, and found herself facing the last ball of the innings on 98*. She got the ball away and she and Ecclestone went all out for the two, but a direct hit throw ran Ecclestone out, leaving Originals with a final score of 151-3, and Mooney 99*. A crowd of over 12,000 gave Mooney a richly deserved standing ovation for her innings. The only wicket taker was left arm spinner Linsey Smith, who also conceded 32 from her 20 balls. Bryce was recorded as ‘retired out’, and hers was the first such tactical retirement in the Hundred (women’s). Some will consider it controversial, but for me it was perfectly legitimate, and I also note that Ecclestone did not ask anyone else to go into bat in that circumstance – she did so herself.

THE SUPERCHARGERS REPLY

Both openers for Superchargers were out cheaply. First to go was Davina Perrin, caught by Bryce off Kim Garth for 7 (9) to make it 13-1. That brought Phoebe Litchfield to the crease and she was in form from the get go. Hollie Armitage was second out, caught by Wolvaardt off Bryce for 9 which made it 45-2. Litchfield and new batter Annabel Sutherland looked capable of turning things round, but Garth produced a superb ball to bowl Litchfield for 45 and make it 86-3 after 64 balls. The moment that effectively sealed Superchargers fate came on the 80th ball of the innings, when Bryce had Sutherland caught by Eve Jones for 26 to make it 102-4. 50 needed of 20 balls, and the most likely person to score at that kind of rate just dismissed was the equation. Georgia Wareham and Bess Heath did their best, scoring 22 together off balls 81-90, which meant the ask was 28 of the final 10 balls. Off the 91st ball of the innings Heath essayed a reverse sweep against Ecclestone and succeeded only in finding the hands of Dani Gregory to 124-5. That brought Alice Davidson-Richards to the crease, and the next four balls yielded eight runs, meaning that 20 were needed off the last five balls. Ecclestone now decided that rather than give the Superchargers the chance to exploit the extra pace of Lauren Filer she would entrust those five balls to Bryce’s medium pace. Off ball 96 Davidson-Richards edged through to Mooney and that was 132-6. Kate Cross was stumped off ball 97 for a first baller, which meant that Bryce had a hat trick, having taken a wicket with the last ball of her previous set of five balls, and now with the first two of this set. Superchargers 132-7, needing 20 off three balls. Lucy Higham got a single off the 98th ball of the innings, and Georgia Wareham gave Bryce her fifth scalp of the innings, being caught by Fi Morris for 25 (18). That was 134-8 with one ball to go, and Linsey Smith managed a single, meaning that the final margin was 17 runs. Bryce’s final figures were 20 balls, of which 11 were dots, 13 runs conceded and five wickets taken – quite some way to make up for being tactically retired with the bat. Mooney who had followed her 99* with a blemish free keeping performance was named Player of the Match. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Trent Rockets Post Big Total

A look at development’s in the Hundred so far today and a photo gallery.

Today in The Hundred Trent Rockets are hosting London Spirit. The Women’s match has just reached the halfway point, and this post looks back at the first 100 balls.

BUILDING A BIG TOTAL

London Spirit won the toss and decided to bowl first. Bryony Smith and Grace Scrivens opening for the Rockets had an excellent opening stand, and Scrivens, who also got good support from Nat Sciver-Brunt, completed an excellent half century. She was third out, bowled by Sarah Glenn for 55, which made it 121-3 with 21 balls to go in the innings. Heather Graham played a superb late innings, and although Ashleigh Gardner didn’t have a great time, Alana King played well in the very closing stages. The innings ended with the run out of Gardner for 7 (4) which left Rockets with a score of 158-5. Deepti Sharma, the Indian off spinning all rounder, had the best figures for the Spirit, taking 2-25 from her 20 balls. This total will take a lot of chasing down. If Rockets defend successful it will mean that there is a clear gap between the top three (Welsh Fire, Northern Superchargers and Oval Invincibles) and the rest. If Spirit do somehow pull this off the split will instead be between a top four and a bottom four.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

200 balls, 17 wickets, 226 runs

A look at the amazing tie between London Spirit and Oval Invincibles in The Hundred (women’s) which concluded jus before I started this post, a look at the England men’s squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and a photo gallery.

This title refers to the extraordinary match in the Hundred (women’s) between London Spirit and Oval Invincibles. This was a very local derby – the home grounds of the two sides are less than five miles apart.

THE LONDON SPIRIT INNINGS

London Spirit batted first. Although Meg Lanning fell very early, bowled by Marizanne Kapp with just two runs on the board Spirit reached 30 for no further loss. At that point Kapp bowled Cordelia Griffith 19, and dismissed the other set batter, Georgia Redmayne the same way for 9 to make it 31-3. Ryana McDonald-Gay then bowled Dani Gibson for 2 to make it 34-4. 13 runs later, with the 50th ball of the innings and the last of her allocation of 20 Kapp claimed a fourth wicket, yet another clean bowled, this time Heather Knight for 6. She had also only conceded 11 runs from those 20 balls. Charlie Dean now provided Indian all rounder Deepti Sharma with some good support, before Amanda-Jade Wellington got through her defences to make it 72-6. Sharma and Eva Gray now shared the best partnership of the innings, before McDonald-Gay achieved the seventh clean bowled dismissal of the innings, getting through Sharma for a fine 44. The run of bowled dismissals ended when Sarah Glenn went for a big hit against Sophia Smale on the 98th ball of the innings and was caught by Mady Villiers. Smale then bowled Sophie Munro with the 99th ball of the innings and it was 111-9. Smale was denied a hat trick, and indeed Tara Norris scored two off the final ball of the innings to give Spirit a final total of 113-9.

THE INVINCIBLES REPLY

Both of the Invincibles experienced openers, Chamari Athapaththu and Lauren Winfield-Hill fell cheaply, and it was 14-2. Marizanne Kapp and Alice Capsey had an excellent partnership, adding 55 for the third wicket before Capsey was bowled by Sharma to make it 69-3. Paige Scholfield, Villiers and Wellington all went cheaply and it was 82-6, but Joanne Gardner and Kapp looked to have settled things when they advanced the score to 110. Kapp just missed out on a half century when Sharma bowled her, but with four runs needed from eight balls it did not look like much difference. However Ryana McDonald-Gay now played a dreadful innings, failing to score of any of her first five balls, finally accruing two of her sixth, the 98th ball of the innings, and then having a swing and a miss at the next. That suddenly meant that Invincibles needed two off one ball. McDonald-Gay did make contact with this and got through for one, but was run out coming up for the second, which meant the match ended in a tie. It was a point thrown away by the Invincibles, and Kapp, taker of 4-11 and scorer of 47 off 32 was a clear Player of the Match. Gardner had 16*, and had McDonald-Gay had the wit to take a single early in her innings would probably have been able to finish things. Scorecard here.

ENGLAND MENS SQUAD FOR SRI LANKA SERIES

Zak Crawley and Dillon Pennington have been ruled out of this series by injuries. Olly Stone has replaced Pennington in the squad. Of more moment given that Pennington did not play against the West Indies is the Crawley situation, and while Jordan Cox (once of Kent, now of Essex) has been added to the squad England are allegedly planning to bring in Dan Lawrence in place Crawley. On ‘next cab off the rank’ principles this is unarguable – Lawrence has done a lot of drinks waitering of late. However Lawrence has never opened in red ball cricket, and while many things done by Stokes and McCullum have worked beautifully for them this one does have a bit of a look of a ‘cunning plan’ about it, with the usual weakness of such plans! One possible solution within the confines of the announced squad is for Stokes to go in right at the top, with Jamie Smith and Lawrence occupying the number six and seven slots which ever way round one cares to have them (Smith generally bats above Lawrence for Surrey), which would leave numbers 2,3,4 and 5 in the order unaffected. Detailed look at the squad here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Superchargers v Invincibles

Today the Hundred features Oval Invincibles v Northern Superchargers. The halfway stage of the women’s match is almost at the halfway stage. This post looks at that match.

AUSSIES TO THE FORE FOR SUPERCHARGERS

The Superchargers are posting an impressive looking total. With three balls to go they are 143-4. This total has been dominated by two Australians. Phoebe Litchfield made an excellent 44, while Annabel Sutherland is still going well. The Sjuperchargers have ended with 146-4, Sutherland 63* (40), an innings that has included five fours and three sixes. Best bowler for the Invincibles has been Rachel Slater who has mysteriously not been given her full allocation of 20 balls – she has 2-11 from 15 balls. On Wednesday Ellyse Perry had a magnificent all round match with 66, 1-10 and a barely believable catch. Annabel Sutherland is a younger Australian all rounder, who like Perry bowls fast medium and is a fine fielder.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…