Tag: Egret

A Declaration That Backfired and a Great Bowling Performance

A look back at the final stage of Gloucestershire’s defeat at the hands of Worcestershire on Sunday and an account of a great bowling performance by Kate Cross today.

The Hampshire and Lancashire women’s sides are currently locked in battle in a one day match which I am listening to. That will feature later in this post, but first I look back to Sunday and a happening that may just have ensured that the county of my birth, Gloucestershire, will finish as wooden spooners in this year’s county championship.

A BIZARRE FAILURE

Gloucestershire were in dire need of a win in this match, and when they declared their second innings at 395-7, an advantage of 278, in a match in which the ball had predominated they may well have reckoned on getting it. By the time I joined the coverage of this match, Somerset having disposed of Essex, Worcestershire were about halfway to the target and had not lost a wicket. Daniel Lategan, a young opener who was still looking for his maiden first class hundred going into this innings was going superbly, and he duly reached the landmark. He went on after reaching the landmark, and by the time he was out, caught by Joe Phillips of young leg spinner Ed Middleton the score had reached 244, of which his share was 144, and the match was as good as over. Middleton added Beyers Swanepoel, a South Africa who Worcestershire had sent in at number three in spite his batting average only being 25 to his scalp bag, taking a return catch to get him for 22. That was the end of Gloucestershire’s successes. Adam Hose at number four was unbeaten on 4 at the end, with Lategan’s opening partner, veteran Jake Libby, unbeaten on 107 in an eight wicket win. The single worst feature of a horrible innings for Gloucestershire was the performance of Sai Kishore, an Indian international left arm spinner. Kishore should have been his team’s most dangerous bowler on the final afternoon and evening of a four day fixture, but his actual figures were 18-2-79-0 – wicketless and costing four and half runs an over.

CROSS PUTS LANCASHIRE IN CONTROL

Kate Cross has recently announced that she will be retiring from professional cricket at the end of the season. Today she reminded those who needed just what a fine player the game will be losing. She soon had Hampshire three down cheaply, her share of the damage being 3-11 midway through her fourth over. She added another wicket at the end of the Hampshire innings. The south coast side had a meagre 223 from 48.4 overs, and Cross had 4-33 from 9.4 overs. Lancashire are handling the chase well as I write this and I expect that they will win quite comfortably.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Comprehensive Win for Somerset

A look back at the portion of Somerset v Essex that I was able to follow after the test match concluded so early, and a photo gallery.

Today is the final day of a round of county championship fixtures. With the test match at Headingley between England and Pakistan failing to go the distance (see here) I have been focussing instead on Somerset v Essex at Taunton.

AN INTERESTING DECISION

I started to follow this match when Somerset, having produced a mighty first innings score, were bowling Essex out cheaply in their first innings. As always when such a possibility arises there was speculation over whether or not the follow-on should be enforced. I felt, as did veteran Somerset commentator Anthony Gibson, that they should do so. I thought their best chance of winning was to bowl Essex out again, and I did not think that Essex with a deficit of 311 to overturn were remotely likely to be able build a winning lead and have time to bowl Somerset out a second time. In the event Somerset themselves also reckoned that putting Essex back in was the right thing to do.

A HUGE PARTNERSHIP

Essex lost their third wicket at 127, still 184 short of avoiding the innings defeat. At that point Charlie Allison and Matt Critchley joined forces for what proved to be a very long partnership. At the close of day three Essex were 314-3, three runs ahead overall, with the pair still in occupation. Although Essex had done superbly to get into that position I still felt only two results were on, a draw if Essex kept batting well and a win if they did not. In the event Jack Leach had a magnificent morning for Somerset, gaining the reward that his hard graft through the Essex innings had earned him. By lunch he had figures of 53-21-77-5, four of those wickets in the morning session. Essex were 394-7, 83 ahead, and their best remaining hope was Simon Harmer, mainly an off spinner but also a very useful lower order batter.

THE CLOSING STAGES

Leach, the hero of the fourth morning, left the field injured early in the afternoon, but young off spinner Archie Vaughan claimed the last three wickets, clean bowling Shane Snater, having Harmer inside edge one into the stumps for another ‘bowled’ in the scorebook and finally pinning Porter, a genuine number 11 (FC batting average 6.39) LBW to end the Essex second innings on 412, a lead of 101. Smaller totals than that have been defended over the years – way back in the 1930s Essex themselves once defended 54, bowling Yorkshire out for 33, to give just one example, but Essex would need to strike hard and early to win. They got one thing right, giving Harmer, their best hope on this fourth day pitch, the new ball. However their field setting for their star off spinner was awry – the fielder on the boundary square of the wicket on the offside was wasted, since they could only come into play if Harmer bowled short, which he was never likely to do. Harmer himself should probably have insisted on that fielder being deployed elsewhere. Somerset started the chase very brightly, having 50 on the board before the end of the seventh over. Harmer did pick up the wickets of Josh Thomas for 31 and Lewis Goldsworthy for 6 but Kiwi international Henry Nicholls ensured that there would be no nonsense, scoring an unbeaten 18 and staying with Tom Lammonby (39 not out) while the winning runs were scored. Scorecard here. This very impressive win means that Somerset are now third in the table behind Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

You will need to look close due to excellence of the camouflage, but there is a small green creature on the leaf.
A Little Egret with its wings fully spread out in flight, low over the Nar outfall.
The Egret, now wading in the water of the Nar Outfall.
Possibly a Ruddy Darter or possibly some other species of damsel or dragonfly perched on a big green leaf overlooking the Gaywood river.

History at Lord’s

A look at developments in the first women’s test match ever to be played at Lord’s, a video and a photo gallery.

Yesterday morning a test match between the England and India women’s teams, at Lord’s, the first time a women’s test match has been played at that ground (a mere 89 years behind the other big London ground, The Oval, which staged the final match of the 1937 Women’s Ashes). With many ex-players present for the great occasion (from former world cup winner Alex Hartley, in her 30s and part of the commentary team as well to Enid Bakewell, some five decades older and still in full possession of her faculties) England won the toss and opted to bowl first. This post looks at developments so far in this match.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

For much of the day it looked as though India were headed for big score, but in the end they were held to 285. Sophie Ecclestone took the last three wickets in the space of six balls, in the process going past Katherine Sciver-Brunt to become England’s leading all format wicket taker. She is also the leading test wicket taker among current England bowlers, and sits third in the all time all format wicket takers list behind two Indians, the retired Jhulan Goswami and Deepti Sharma, also playing in this match (contributed a 50 to the Indian cause). Goswami’s record will be going in the not too distant future to one or other of these contemporary greats. Ecclestone is the younger of the pair, 27 years old to Deepti Sharma’s 28.

THE ENGLAND REPLY

By the end of day one England had lost veteran opener Tammy Beaumont, whose last international match this will be. They started very badly today, with overnight batters Bouchier and Knight departing quickly, and being followed in short order by Capsey. Amy Jones struck an aggressive 50 before being caught by Ghosh off Sneh Rana. Then Kranti Gaud, with three wickets already to her name already pinned England skipper Natalie Sciver-Brunt plumb in front. Because of the desperate situation the decision was sent upstairs, but it was definitively out – crashing into middle stump. That was 142-6. Ecclestone was eighth out caught behind off Sayali Satghare for 11. Shortly after that Gaud was recalled to the bowling crease, and became the first woman to claim a place on a test match honours board at Lord’s when a superb catch by Shafali Verma accounted for Lauren Bell. Her figures at that juncture were Gaud 15.2-6-33-5. Had she taken the tenth wicket of the innings and conceded 12 or fewer runs doing so she would have had the best innings figures by a woman in any international match at Lords, beating the 6-46 taken by Anya Shrubsole in the 2017 ODI world cup final. As it happened the final wicket, that of Lauren Filer, fell to Deepti Sharma, so Shrubsole’s record figures stand for now (when it comes to bowling figures in cricket the number of wickets is considered paramount, and it is only when considering hauls of the same number of wickets that the number of runs conceded becomes relevant). As it was Gaud, with final figures of 17-7-37-5 had been instrumental in securing her side a first innings lead of 115, which is likely to prove a match winning lead. Kranti Gaud is 22 years old, and as recently as 18 months ago she was not even on the Indian selectors’ radar. The other England v India match today, a men’s T20 at the Hampshire Bowl near, but crucially not actually in Southampton. got underway half an hour behind schedule due heavy traffic causing the Indian team to arrive late. That match is in its early stages, but not showing any great sign of ending the Indian men’s horror tour which has seen them reach this point with five defeats and a no-result to show for their endeavours.

PHOTOGRAPHS

We start with a short video of a small hedgehog which was in the grass at Kettlewell Lane Park this morning:

Now for the photos…

A demoiselle with a slender dark blue body and wings that are half translucent and half black sits right on top of a nettle plant.
A robot in Morrison’s yesterday (two pics)
The pontoon jetty being well used – eight boats, of which two are survey boats that are regularly there and one is the old cockling boat the Baden Powell, but five are bona fide visitors.
This cormorant has secured itself a decent breakfast (it was about 9AM when I took this one).
The gallery ends with the hedgehog (five pics)

Pictures from Norfolk

A gallery of recent photos.

The weather has been fine in my part of the world of late, apart from Friday which was dull and grey. I thus have lots of pictures to share, and not being inspired to think of things to write about I offer up this gallery:

One of the villains of the natural world – an ichneumon wasp (this variety lays its eggs in a caterpillar, which then gets eaten from the inside by the larvae).

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

An English Side “Win” In Australia

A look at the second and final day of The Prime Minister’s XI v An England XI at Manuka Oval, Canberra and a large photo gallery.

This post looks back the second and final day of the match at Manuka Oval, Canberra between The Prime Minister’s XI and An English XI. The reason for the quote marks in the title should become apparent during the rest of the post.

A BATTING DAY

An England XI resumed overnight on 30-0 in reply to the Prime Minister’s XIs 308-8 declared. Tom Haines and Emilio Gay continued to bat well, with Gay in particular impressing. Their stand was only broken when soreness in the hamstring area induced Gay to retire hurt (this after all is not a match that counts towards anyone’s career record). The only disappointment of the day followed, when one of the most overhyped young talents in the game, Jacob Bethell, contributed a mere 16 before getting out. That brought James Rew, who at the age of 21 already has 11 first class hundreds to his name (11 more than Bethell’s current tally, and he scored his tenth FC century at a younger age than anyone since Denis Compton) to the crease. Rew never really looked other than the high class player his record shows him to be (and according to his county, Somerset, his younger brother Thomas, also playing in this match, is even better), and although Haines fell for a fine 77, Asa Tribe, a Jersey born Glamorgan batter who has also played for his native Island, joined Rew and also played well. By this stage it was obvious that only two questions remained to be resolved – would the English side go ahead on first innings, and would Rew reach three figures? The answers proved to be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Rew and Tribe were still together when An England XI moved to 309-2, Rew 93 not out, Tribe 53 not out, and immediately declared, which was followed equally quickly by handshakes on the final result. An England XI thus won on first innings, and secured for themselves such credit as could be taken from a match of this nature. However it is not properly speaking a win, since by the stated playing conditions (as opposed to the agreement that the sides had clearly come to) this was supposed to a be a two innings match, and neither side officially forfeited an innings, and therefore it is officially a drawn match. Various bowlers had moments for the English side, and Gay, Haines, J Rew and Tribe all impressed with the bat. One of the first two named should have good chances of swift elevation, with Crawley surely close to exhausting even his super-feline stock of test lives, and while Rew have may longer to wait England should be looking for ways to include him.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I am not entirely sure as to the species of this magnificent raptor which I saw flying overhead earlier this afternoon, but I have had a suggestion of buzzard for it. Update I have just been told that it is a Red Kite.

England Win in Colombo

A brief look back at happenings at the Women’s cricket world cup on Thursday and yesterday, and account of today’s match in Colombo and two photo galleries.

Although today’s match dominates this post I make mention of a couple of others as well.

THURSDAY AND YESTERDAY

Tuesday and Wednesday both saw threats of upsets, but in each case the big side came good in the end. On Thursday we finally saw an upset. For most of the chase it looked like India were in charge, but then Nadine de Klerk, batting at number eight, came to the party. An astounding display from the spin bowling all rounder saw four sixes in the space of 2.5 overs (the first two balls of the 47th over, the third and fifth of the 49th). That last six, de Klerk’s fifth in all, took South Africa to victory with seven balls to spare. In total de Klerk scored 84 not out from 54 balls. Remarkably the innings that seemed to have given India enough to defend, Richa Ghosh’s 94, was also scored from number eight, though I cannot comment on that innings other than the bare detail since I was at work while it was being played.

Yesterday I missed the New Zealand innings (see my previous post) but got to hear most of the Bangladesh reply. This match was a familiar tale for Bangladesh and Pakistan at this tournament – a respectable bowling performance but the batters were simply not up to the task. Chasing 225 Bangladesh were at one point 33-6, and although they fought back somewhat from that nadir the final margin was over 100 runs in the Kiwis favour.

GALLERY ONE

SRI LANKA v ENGLAND

The start was slightly delayed by a wet outfield, but both sides stuck to their spin heavy selection plans. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl, which did not worry Natalie Sciver-Brunt and England in the slightest since they would have batted first in any case.

Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones began brightly before a combination of an over-optimistic call by Beaumont and a hesitation on the part of Jones cost the latter her wicket. Sri Lanka fared well once they had broken this partnership, but they made a crucial error when a catch offered by Sciver-Brunt, then on 3, went to ground. While no one else made a major contribution the England skipper batted through, cautiously at first, and finally blazingly aggressively in the closing stages of the innings. Her 117 off 117 balls with nine fours and two sixes was the highest individual score of the tournament so far and got England to 253-9, which looked enough.

With 18 runs on the board Sri Lanka lost Chamari Athapaththu to a calf issue – she left the field on a stretcher, but after treatment it was confirmed that she would be able to resume her innings. Vishmi Gunaratne was bowled by Charlie Dean for 10 (9) to make it 37-1, but then for a time Sri Lanka prospered. It was Sophie Ecclestone who changed all that. A high water mark of 95-1 degenerated to 103-4 in the space of 2.2 overs, with the tall left armer dismissing Hasini Perera with the aid of a catch by Alice Capsey, Harshitha Samarawickrama to a fine running catch by Lauren Bell and Kavisha Dilhari clean bowled. There was the merest hint of a revival after that, but 13 runs later Ecclestone effectively terminated Sri Lanka’s interest in proceedings by clean bowling the restored Athapaththu with a beauty for her fourth wicket of the innings (at this stage she had 4-5). In the process of spinning this web from which Sri Lanka could not extricate themselves Ecclestone reached 30 wickets in ODI world cup matches, in just her 12th such game, five matches fewer than the previous quickest to that mark. Sri Lanka resisted with sufficient determination that their last wicket fell with only 4.2 overs of their allocation left, but the margin of 89 runs tells a truer story of this one-sided match. Sciver-Brunt picked up a couple of wickets in this phase to go with her century, and was the last player to touch the ball in the match, holding the catch off Linsey Smith that dismissed Udeshika Prabodhani.

GALLERY TWO

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.

England Off to Winning Start at Women’s ODI World Cup

An account of England’s start at the Women’s ODI World Cup, against South Africa in Guwahati. Also a large photo gallery.

The latest edition of the women’s ODI world cup got underway this week. India beat Sri Lanka in the tournament opener, Australia beat New Zealand in the second match, which was harder fought than the eventual 89 run margin suggests – Australia were at point struggling at 127-5, and it was only their immense depth that enabled them to escape from there. Yesterday Bangladesh beat Pakistan by seven wickets. Bangladesh in that game opted for only one front line seam option, with five recognized spinners in their line up. That sole seamer, Marufa Akter, was named Player of the Match, having struck twice in her first over, a start from which Pakistan never recovered. Today saw England in action against South Africa, meaning that all sides have now played one match. The rest of this post looks back at that match.

ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA

This match took place in Guwahati in the far north-eastern corner of India. England won the toss and opted to bowl first. They pretty much followed the Bangladesh pattern of selection, going spin dominant, with Lauren Bell the only specialist seamer in the XI, though they also had Natalie Sciver-Brunt’s medium pace available to them, though giving her a full allocation given her recent injury issues would probably have been ill advised in game one of a long tournament. There was little sign of things to come in the first over, bowled by Bell, from which nine runs accrued. That was the last time anything really went South Africa’s way. Linsey Smith took the new ball at the other end to Bell, and her second ball accounted for Laura Wolvaardt, who essayed a drive and succeeded only in sending the ball straight back to Smith who took the return catch. The other opener, Tazmin Brits, was bowled by the first ball of the fourth over, Smith’s second, with the left arm spinner still yet to concede a run, and it was 12-2. South Africa could not come to terms with losing both openers so cheaply. In the fifth over Bell clean bowled Sune Luus to make it 17-3. Three balls later Linsey Smith clean bowled Marizanne Kapp for 4 and it was 19-4. Anneke Bosch and Sinalo Jafta managed a 12 run stand before Sciver-Brunt’s first ball as England skipper (she had been unable to bowl all summer) pinned Bosch so plumb in front that even with the dismissal making the score 31-5 the South African did not bother to go upstairs. Exactly two overs later Chloe Tryon was caught by Capsey off Sciver-Brunt for 2 and it was 38-6, and record books were being consulted for all time low scores in the format. The seventh wicket added 10 careful runs before the first ball of the 14th over saw Nadine de Klerk drive loosely at Sophie Ecclestone and succeed only in edging to slip where Heather Knight held a sharp catch to make it 48-7. Masabata Klaas managed to bat a little time (13 balls in total), but only accrued three runs before Charlie Dean bowled her and it was 60-8 in the 18th over. Sinalo Jafta, the only Protea to reach double figures, had got to 22, and batted pretty well, when she essayed a wild hoick against Ecclestone, missed and was bowled to make it 60-9. When those who are supposed to be able to bat have failed this epically one cannot expect a great deal from numbers 10 and 11, with no batting pedigree whatsoever, and in the circumstances Ayabonga Khaka (6 not out, a slight overachievement compared to her career batting average) and Nonkululeko Mlaba (3) did as well as anyone could have expected. It was Dean who took the final wicket, bowling Mlaba to make it 69 all out from 20.4 overs. Every England bowled who got on claimed at least one wicket, Linsey Smith finishing with 3-7 from four overs, while Sciver-Brunt, Dean and Ecclestone each took two wickets and Bell one. With only 70 to get the question was exactly how comprehensively would England end up winning. Tammy Beaumont never really got going but was not going to miss out on an opportunity to boost her batting average with a ‘not out’ – such opportunities are rarely granted to openers and she has been around a long time. Amy Jones did get going, and her unbeaten 40 from 50 balls put the South African collapse into perspective. Beaumont was 21 not out from 35 balls and South Africa gave away 12 extras (as compared to 8 by England). England won by 10 wickets with 35.5 overs to spare, and will go into their second match with a net run rate of +3.773.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…