Tag: Gatekeeper

A Tale of Sophie and Sophia

A look at the women’s match between Manchester Super Giants and Trent Rockets in The Hundred today and a photo gallery.

Today in the Hundred the Manchester Super Giants are playing Trent Rockets. The women’s match has already happened, and this post looks back at it.

THE TRENT ROCKETS INNINGS

The home side won the toss and as everyone always seems to in this competition they chose to bowl first. Although the legend that is Beth Mooney failed on this occasion, bowled by Grace Ballinger for 2 that early setback was followed by a superb partnership between Sophia Dunkley and Sophie Luff who each topped 50. Luff went for 51, from just 26 balls, to a catch by Smriti Mandhana off Maitlan Brown. Dunkley scored 57 from 33 balls, falling to a catch by Ryana Macdonald-Gay off Sophie Ecclestone. The Super Giants bowlers arguably had the better of what was left of the innings, though Georgia Adams managed an unbeaten 20 from 13 balls to lift the Rockets score past 150. Most of the Rockets bowlers fared pretty poorly overall, though Ecclestone managed 2-24 from her 20 balls, and Ballinger had 1-21 from her full 2o balls.

THE MANCHESTER SUPER GIANTS RESPONSE

Manchester Super Giants never looked remotely like chasing that Rockets total down. Meg Lanning scored at the required rate, but could not get enough of the strike – she was out to the 72nd ball of the innings, which was her 24th, meaning that as an opening batter she had managed to face just one third of the number of balls bowled while she was at the crease. Kathryn Bryce hit successive fours to bring up the 100, making the ask 54 off 24 balls, but she was out to the very next ball and thereafter, apart from a couple of defiant sixes from the bat of Maitlan Brown it was one-way traffic, with the end coming when Ashleigh Gardner clean bowled Ballinger for a two ball duck to make it 122 all out from 93 balls, a win for Rockets by 31 runs. Sophia Dunkley was named Match Hero having pouched three catches to set alongside her score of 57. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A common darter (four pics)
a red dragonfly near the Gaywood River (I am not sure enough of my dragonflies to give the species of this one).
This was discounted – £7 for a 750ml bottle, which is very cheap for olive oil in a British shop.

The Hundred 2026 Gets Underway

A look back at the Men’s Hundred (mis)match between MI London and Sunrisers Leeds at The Oval yesterday and a large photo gallery.

The Hundred has undergone a major revamp since last summer, with the IPL getting involved in a big way. This post looks at the early stages of the competition.

NEW ERA OFF TO A FAMILIAR START

The first match of the Hundred in 2026 featured MI London (the former Oval Invincibles, and although the MI derives from the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians, who now own this franchise as well as many others we have been instructed that the required pronunciation is ‘My London’ not ‘M I London’) in action against Sunrisers Leeds (nee Northern Superchargers, also now owned by an IPL franchise, in this case Hyderabad). I missed the women’s match due to being at work, but I did listen to the men’s game.

Sunrisers Leeds, batting first, started brightly, and for more than half of their allotted 100 balls looked to be going very well. The key moment was the dismissal of Mitch ‘the bison’ Marsh for 41, caught by Sam Curran off Tom Curran, which made it 84-3 from 56 balls. That started a collapse, and Leeds were all out for 143 off the penultimate ball of their innings. Richard Gleeson had 4-25 from 19 balls and Sam Curran 2-27 from 15 balls.

Will Jacks and Jason Roy were both out cheaply for the London side, but a good stand between James Vince and Sam Curran took them past 50 before Vince was bowled for 17 to make it 51-3 from 44 balls. That brought Nicholas Pooran, one of the ultimate ‘guns for hire’ in this era of franchise cricket, to the crease to join Curran. Curran batted beautifully, but even he was overshadowed by the pyrotechnics of Pooran. The Oval is a big ground, but most of Pooran’s five sixes cleared the ropes by a very long way. In all the West Indian hammered 58 not out from 22 balls with five of each kind of boundary, Curran ended on 60 not out from 39 balls with five fours and three sixes. The London side had romped home by seven wickets with 16 balls to spare, a barely credible margin in a match in this format. Sam Curran’s all round efforts plus his captaincy of the London side secured him the ‘Match Hero’ award. Some names of changed and there is more money involved, but the franchise based at The Oval still looks formidably strong. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

After a reminder to click on photos to view them at larger size we move to my usual sign off…

A hummingbird hawkmoth extracting nectar from a buddleia plant…
…and close up in all its glory.
It rained lightly but persistently yesterday morning, and that brought the snails out in force.
This red admiral has seen better days.
goldfinches on a roof.
This feather, which I saw lying near the Gaywood river at Kettlewell Lane Park originally belonged to a blue jay.
Two bumblebees enjoying the same buddleia head.
A painted lady rests on a patch of gravel
A gatekeeper oblingly spreads its wings.

Nat Sciver-Brunt’s Spectacular Finish

A look at the game in the Hundred (women’s) between London Spirit and Trent Rockets that happened earlier today, with special emphasis on the spectacular finish provided by Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Earlier today London Spirit took on Trent Rockets in the Hundred (Women’s). The game was a good one although it came to a premature end due to an amazing display of hitting from Nat Sciver-Brunt for the Rockets.

THE SPIRIT INNINGS

London Spirit never really got into top gear. Danielle Gibson scored 36 off 27 balls at the top of order and Kiwi all rounder Amelia Kerr scored 36*, but took 30 balls to score them and these were the best innings for the Spirit. The best bowlers for the Rockets were their spinners, Kirstie Gordon 2-19, Alana King 1-18 and Bryony Smith 1-19, all bowling their full allocations of 20 balls. The end result was an indifferent total of 124-4 from 100 balls.

THE ROCKETS CHASE

For most of the second innings things were going the way of the Spirit, although Nat Sciver-Brunt was singlehandedly keeping Rockets hopes aloft, reaching a classy 50 off 32 balls. With 20 balls left Rockets were five wickets down and had 35 runs still to score. There then followed a truly extroardinary sequence of seven balls. First Scrivens hit Gardner for a four and six, then a single brought Sciver-Brunt on strike. Sciver=Brunt concluded the set by hitting the next two balls for sixes, reducing the ask to 12 off 15 balls. It took one legal delivery. The 86th ball of the innings, bowled by Danielle Gibson, saw Sciver-Brunt hit a third successive six, thrashed over midwicket. The next delivery was smashed baseball style even further over midwicket, and just to make things worse for poor Gibson it was called a no-ball, meaning that her final spell was officially 0.1-0-14-0! This sequence of four successive sixes took Sciver-Brunt’s score from a splendid 57* (37) to a stupendous 81* (41). In addition to the blitz that ended the match with 14 balls to spare Sciver-Brunt had hit nine fours along the way. Carlos Brathwaite once won a T20 World Cup by hitting four successive sixes, and Kapil Dev once saved India from following on with a similar sequence (Lord’s 1990), but England managed to win that one anyway. For the first time this season Rockets finished up looking more like Apollo 11 than Apollo 1.

PHOTOGRAPHS

For the feature image I have done an experiment. I could not pick between two of my photos so I have endeavoured to combine the best features of both. Otherwise this is my usual sign off…