INTRODUCTION
Just before starting work on this post I spotted that the England squad for the third test match has been selected. Therefore I will start with a look at that, before moving on to main subject.
A DISAPPOINTING SELECTION
The squad for tomorrow’s 3rd test match against the West Indies contains 14 names, as follows (see here for full details):
Joe Root (Yorkshire) Captain, James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Dominic Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).
Ben Foakes, James Bracey and Dan Lawrence have all been overlooked. My choice of 11 from this 14 (like the Irishman who was asked for directions ‘Oi wouldn’t start from here’) would be in batting order: Burns, Sibley, Crawley, *Root, Stokes, +Pope, Curran, Bess, Archer, Broad, Anderson. I refuse ever to name Buttler in a suggested test XI, which from this 14 means I have to give the gloves to Pope. I think England need both their veterans Broad and Anderson, and I also want the spinner, the out and out speedster and with due respect to Woakes I opt for the extra variation provided by Curran’s left arm, gambling on him at number seven. Although I would like to accommodate both speedsters, it would mean either one of the veterans missing out or Bess coming in at number seven which is a trifle too much of a gamble on the batting even for me.
THE LONDON CUP
Surrey and Middlesex women’s sides convened at The Oval to play a T20 match for The London Cup yesterday evening, starting at 6PM. The game was available on livestream courtesy of http://www.kiaoval.com. Surrey had lost all of the previous five runnings of this event, and were without Nat Sciver, Sophia Dunkley and Bryony Smith, all up at Derby with the national squad.
Surrey bowled first, and opened with medium pace from Amy Gordon and spin purveyed by Claudie Cooper. Middlesex were saved from complete disaster by a robust innings from Cordelia Griffith who made 30, the highest individual score the game. Gayatri Gole came in at 60-5 and reached 28 not out, as Middlesex ended up recovering somewhat to 108-7 from their 20 overs.
Beth Kerins had a spell which started dreadfully – four of the six balls of her first over were rank full tosses but recovered well.
Dani Gregory, a young leg spinner with a very rapid arm action, bowled a spell in which she sent down a number of wides, but also some very good stuff, including this beauty (click link below to view), probably the best single delivery of the match.
JAFFA 🍊
WATCH LIVE ➡️ https://t.co/ganm1c05F1 pic.twitter.com/mSLOrzwUo2
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) July 22, 2020
Surrey themselves struggled with the bat, especially against Katie Wolfe, the quickest bowler on either side, and Emily Thorpe, another young spinner who looks a real prospect (she got two wickets, both clear cut LBWs, one of them Aylish Cranstone just as she was beginning to like dangerous). They too were 60-5 at low water mark, and their number 7, wicket keeper Kira Chathli, played a fine innings to rescue them. In the 18th over Chathli twice flipped deliveries over the keeper’s head for fours to get Surrey back almost up with the rate. The 19th over was bowled by Katie Wolfe, and until near the end looked like settling it for Middlesex, but then the irrepressible Chathli hit another four and six were needed off the final over. The number nine for Surrey got Chathli back on strike early in the over, and with two balls left three were required for victory. Chathli, cool as a cucumber, slotted one final boundary to take her own score to 28 not out and her side to victory with one ball remaining. Bhavika Gajipra also bowled well for Middlesex.
TEASER, LINKS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
A couple of pieces from Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK:
- The right response to the question ‘What taxes should be raised to pay for coronavirus?’ is ‘None’
- The UK government’s own accounts show that QE cancels government debt
A very easy teaser from brilliant.org:
This was offered with multiple choice answers, but I am not going to be that generous. I will however give one hint: this is a problem about pattern recognition, not calculation.
Now it is time for my usual sign off…
aspiblog 